Heartless Skulduggery Pleasant Series
by Autumn Kismet
Summary: VALDUGGERY! With things around her changing, Valkyrie is ready to experiment with her crush on Skulduggery Pleasant and her 'thing' for Fletcher Renn, until she gets bored that is! On top of the regular butt-kicking and of course her new-found feelings, Valkyrie is sent to the year 1632 by a special mage; causing all of her friends to worry - except Skulduggery.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.**

Heartless - Chapter One

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Valkyrie Cain stared out through her bedroom window of her parents' house, pushing her dark hair that was framing her face behind her ears. She had just watched the Bentley speed off down the main road of Haggard toward the house of the car's owner, Skulduggery Pleasant. He had just dropped her off after a long week of work and searching for Solomon Wreath. Wreath had trained Valkyrie in Necromancy, and now that The Surge was fast approaching for Valkyrie, Skulduggery, as her REAL mentor and trainer – in his opinion of course, had wanted to have a word between the three of them. This talk regarding what kind of magic Valkyrie would want to spend the rest of her life using, Necromancy – something Skulduggery shivered at the thought of or elemental magic – something much more accepted by the magical community. After searching for a total what was now ten days, there was still no sign of Wreath – this worried Valkyrie.

It was 11:30 pm; she slid her clothes off onto the floor, wrapped a towel around her body and headed to the bathroom to shower. The water was relaxing, she'd eased herself into the hot, soothing water and rinsed her body of the dirt and muck she had picked up since the last time she had a chance to shower, which she now realised was six days ago. She sighed at the thought of this and aimed her face up at the shower head which blasted her scrunched up and readied face with water. "I wonder how Skulduggery gets clean", she thought;" he didn't even have a shower until I started spending more time at his house…" Valkyrie giggled slightly at the idea of a skeleton in the shower, washed her long hair and brushed her teeth before turning off the water and stepping out of the shower. She grabbed for her red towel, which had annoyingly fallen off the bench and onto the cool, tiled floor of the bathroom during Valkyrie's original rush toward the shower, dried herself off and wrapped the towel around her body once more, then made a bee-line for her bedroom.

She threw the towel across the room and pulled a short nightie on over her head that had actually fitted her when she was twelve, but now at age 17 it barely covered anything, she didn't care though, "No one will ever see It", she thought to herself. As she eagerly leaped into bed she pulled up the duvet, covering her body. She wriggled for a bit before she had decided she was entirely comfortable. Finally, sleep came to her.

At 10:00 am, Valkyrie was abruptly awakened by the sound of bone knocking on glass. Skulduggery was at her window. She opened her eyes and looked at him then lazily pulled an arm out of the warm duvet and waved at him; signalling him to come in. He opened the window of her bedroom on the second story, using the air to propel him the rest of the way up and into her bedroom. He looked at her and sighed. "Boy is she cute…" he thought, "What I would give to just…" His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his own voice,  
"Miss Cain," his strong, velvety voice began, "I do believe it is about time you got up."  
Valkyrie made a high pitched, whining noise and rolled over, facing the wall.  
"I don't want to…" she said meekly.  
"I know, I know, but we all have to do things we don't want to do. In fact, I don't want to meet up with Wreath today to talk with the two of you about The Surge. I also didn't want to tell you that he came to me last night to speak about the very same thing we've been tracking him down for." Skulduggery said, hoping Valkyrie wouldn't be excited to see the damned necromancer.  
Unfortunately for him this made Valkyrie jolt up in bed, she was excited. He was jealous, although even he knew that Wreath was nothing compared to himself. Valkyrie watched as Skulduggery's head tilted upwards from facing the ground, which had made him look disappointed, to facing her, she could tell that if he had a face he would be smirking – completely and utterly content with himself.  
"Sorry," she began sarcastically, "did I almost hurt ego?"  
"Almost, but not quite –I think you might have even missed my ego completely." He replied with a content tone.  
"Missed your ego?" she laughed, "It's impossible to miss something as big as your ego, that'd be like missing Russia."  
"Don't be absurd!" he cried in mock-horror, "You cannot compare my ego to something the size of Russia! Russia is far smaller." He nodded toward her. She knew he would be pretending to frown, she could tell simply by his voice.

She hopped out of bed, looked up and Skulduggery and noticed that he was looking at her. "Shit. The nightie…" she thought, but rather than making everything awkward she decided to flaunt it in some kind of hope that it would catch Skulduggery's attention – which it did. Valkyrie casually walked over to her wardrobe and picked up her dark black and red clothes that Ghastly had made for her, in doing so revealing her underwear to the 400-and-something year old living skeleton still standing by her bed. He didn't want to look. It was wrong, sick, perverted, a light shade of pink with lace around the edges… He shook his head and snapped out of it. She quickly slipped the pants on underneath her nightie and turned around to him. "When did THOSE get there?" he wondered to himself quizzically after glancing at her very apparent and prominent breasts. Valkyrie had finished showing off and headed toward the bathroom to continue getting changed.  
"Meet you in the Bentley!" she called to poor, confused Skulduggery from across the hall.

Fletcher Renn screamed as Valkyrie held him up against the wall outside the Sanctuary in one hand with a ball of fire flaming in the other, threating to scorch him. The 19 year old boy kicked his legs, still a decent half a metre off the ground, aiming for Valkyrie's stomach… or leg, or chest, or anything that might aid him in escaping from the clutches of his ex-girlfriend - now friend after making his fourth sexual pass at her for the day.  
"Val… Please… I'm sorry! You know I am!" he cried out, trying to appeal to her emotions.  
"How about I burn your hair a little? Yes? Yes. Sounds like a plan to me." She smiled wickedly.  
"No. No! Not the hair! NOT MY HAIR!" he began screaming even louder,  
"Val, come on. Put the little boy down, he might be missing his mummy if you hold him up there for too long." Came the all-too pleasant sound of none other than Skulduggery Pleasant. Valkyrie laughed and dropped Fletcher to the ground in a whimpering heap.  
"My… my… my… hair…" he whispered to himself at the sheer thought of his hair being damaged, which was soon interrupted by a kick in the stomach inflicted by Skulduggery.  
"Okay, Skul. I think he's learnt his lesson, plus I don't think Nye will be too pleased to see us coming back with yet another patient for it." Laughed Valkyrie, "You've learnt your lesson, haven't you Fletch?"  
"R-right…" stuttered a winded Fletcher, trying to hold back his tears.  
"Nye can be very patient when it wants to be Valkyrie, it still puts up with you, after all." Skulduggery chucked with what would have been smirk across his face if he'd still had one, Valkyrie scowled.  
"Besides," Fletcher had decided to conclude the conversation, "if Val had burnt off my hair and face, she'd probably like me better. We all know how men with no skin, flesh or hair turn her on." He grinned up until Valkyrie kicked him in the gut.

Skulduggery led Valkyrie through the Roarhaven Sanctuary heading towards the room Wreath had agreed to meet them in, heads turning slightly in confusion as to why Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain were not currently on a case but were instead wandering around the Sanctuary together. There were whispers.  
"The poor girl," she heard one mage say,  
"So you think they're… you know?" she heard another one whisper.  
Valkyrie ignored them, knowing that Skulduggery was doing the same. They reached the small meeting room Skulduggery was leading her to and Wreath was already inside waiting for them, he nodded at Skulduggery and smiled at Valkyrie, taking her hand.  
"Skulduggery," he acknowledged, "Valkyrie, my sweet." He said taking her in a soft embrace. Skulduggery was glad he didn't have a face at times like these; they couldn't tell he was fuming with both angry and jealousy.  
"Solomon," Valkyrie said with a glimmer of happiness in her voice, "Where have you been? We've been searching for you, and when we couldn't find you I was worried…" her voice had suddenly changed from happy to that of deep concern. Skulduggery draped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her a little.  
"I'm sorry Valkyrie; I was in one of the larger Necromancy temples across Ireland. After Melancholia happened, the High Priest wanted to make sure that a situation like that would never arise again," Wreath stated.  
"That sounds about right…" Skulduggery mumbled to Valkyrie, she ignored him and turned to Wreath,  
"That's a relief, I guess. I was scared that maybe something had happened," Valkyrie sighed before she smiled up at him.  
"Now," started Skulduggery, "down to business. Valkyrie, as you know and we have slightly discussed, The Surge is approaching and you need to choose between Elemental and-"  
"Necromancy." Wreath finished. Valkyrie looked at the both, one to the other, Skulduggery to Wreath and Wreath to Skulduggery. They sort of reminded her of politicians, begging for votes with their faces, well Wreaths face and Skulduggery's eye sockets that were slightly aimed at his feet but she could tell her was looking at her. She liked it when he looked at her; she'd had a crush on him for as long as she could remember so when he looked at her she felt her heart speed up and prayed that he couldn't hear it. She suddenly felt her cheeks grow warmer, she was blushing. "Shit. Shit. SHIT." She had no idea what she wanted to choose and it had been about a minute or two since Wreath had uttered the word "Necromancy", finishing Skulduggery's previous sentence.  
"Val..?" Skulduggery asked her quizzically, "Are you alright..?"  
"I'm going to throw up. Maybe I'll cry a bit too." She thought, and before she could think a second thought she heard herself say it.  
"I'm going to throw up. Maybe I'll cry a bit too."  
Skulduggery looked at her face, she wasn't lying, and she suddenly didn't look well. She burst into tears. Wreath looked at Skulduggery, he was looking down at Valkyrie and already had her in his arms, holding her up and comforting her.  
"I'll be going now, Valkyrie. Whatever you choose I will support your decision," said Wreath, and he left quickly.  
"I didn't mean to cry," she said, tears still flowing down her face, Skulduggery pulled her in tighter and ran his bony fingers through her hair.  
"Val, it's fine, you can cry if you need to… What's wrong?"  
" I feel like if I don't choose Elemental and pick Necromancy then I'll destroy the world even easier as Darquesse, but if I choose Elemental then, well, I don't even know!"  
"You'll be okay, Val. Trust yourself, who knows you maybe end up being like the few of us amazing mages that can use more than one type of magic." He said warmly and smugly. She giggled and moved in closer to him, noticing he still hadn't let her go,  
"And here was thinking that the Sanctuary was too small to house your ego…" she smiled.  
"My ego is very talented and can fit into very small places despite is shockingly enourmous size"  
"Great, now your ego has its own ego!"  
They laughed and he looked down at her, she turned her head and smiled up at him before they separated and walked straight out of the Sanctuary headed for the car.

The 1954 Bentley R-Type Continental, one of only 208 ever made with a six-cylinder, 4.5 litre engine, retro-fitted with central locking, climate control, satellite navigation and a host of other modern conveniences, stood parked outside the Sanctuary in the shabby little town of Roarhaven. Fletcher was still standing outside waiting for them to hurry up and get out, he was getting bored. Skulduggery gracefully slid into the driver's seat of the Bentley and Fletcher hopped into the backseat casually, while Valkyrie practically fell into the passenger's seat.  
"Are you okay, Baby?" Skulduggery asked sounding concerned; Valkyrie looked up at him in confusion, Fletcher was just as befuddled.  
"Uh, yeah… I'm fine." She said with an obvious hint of her confusion of Skulduggery referring to her as 'baby'.  
"Not you. My baby." He said patting the dash board of the car. He would have been smiling if he had a face.  
"Oh," was all Valkyrie could say, Fletcher laughed, Valkyrie scowled at him.

As they arrived at their destination, Gordon's house, Valkyrie glanced out of the car windshield and saw a figure, a figure she knew all too well, Billy-Ray Sanguine. Skulduggery and Fletcher exited the car, completely unaware that not two minutes ago the man that had captured her former best friend was standing eight feet away from them; Valkyrie remained firmly planted in the front seat. Skulduggery sighed and looked at Fletcher who was staring at the girl in the front seat of the car looking exceedingly grumpy. Fletcher looked back at Skulduggery and then started round to the front seat of the car and opened the door for Valkyrie.  
"Come on Val," Fletcher said quietly, "Get up and let's go. Please?" She looked at his ridiculous hair and then back at his face,  
"But…" she began, and as she did so a single tear ran down her beautiful, pale face from her large brown eyes, Fletcher was shocked. For as long as he'd known her, Fletcher Renn had never seen Valkyrie Cain cry.  
"Shhh…" hushed Fletcher, "It's okay, you'll be alright…" he continued.  
"It's not me…" she said even softer, she was almost whispering into Fletcher's ear. A shadow loomed over the two of them just as Fletcher brushed his thumb across her cheek, wiping away the lone tear. He could see she was doing everything she could to hold in the millions of tears threatening to fall from her eyes.  
"What are you doing?" the voice of Skulduggery came from behind the boy with Valkyries face delicately cupped in his right hand. She missed that…  
"Nothing… Just nothing." Replied Valkyrie shakily, he knew he shouldn't have asked like that, now he just felt like he had been mean. "It's probably a girl thing, the sooner we find a way to get Tanith back the sooner my Valkyrie is happy again… I like that, 'MY Valkyrie'. Mine. I never thought of it like that before. 'Hi, this is my Valkyrie, the love of my life.'" Skulduggery smiled that invisible smile of his before he quickly realised the situation, Fletcher was just inches away from her face but he didn't look like he was going to try anything. Fletchers hand dropped from her pretty face, he paused before turning and looked her in the eye and said directly to her,  
"I care about you, you can tell me anything".  
"For a kid with a stupid haircut," thought Skulduggery, "he actually knows what he's doing." Skulduggery was jealous, again. "She's been there, done that." He thought again, and then suddenly it hit him, "Had she been there and done… him? Fletcher..? They dated for a while, but had they actually-"  
"Skulduggery, can we please go inside now?" Valkyrie asked, partially embarrassed, he nodded,  
"Of course." And he put his arm around her and led her into the house.

Valkyrie hated crying, it made her seem weak, defenceless, and pathetic. She couldn't tell them why she had started crying though, Skulduggery refused to leave her side until he had an answer and Fletcher kept offering her tea and chocolate.  
"Please Skulduggery, I'm fine," Valkyrie insisted, an hour after they had gotten out of the car.  
"Not until you tell me what these little outbursts are about. Val, you're my partner and best friend, you can trust me. Besides, I have to know. Since you're my partner I need to know and understand WHY my partner is suddenly emotionally unstable and how it's going to be affecting her work." Skulduggery answered her statement.  
"Are you sure you don't want some tea, hot chocolate?"  
"No thanks Fletch, I've told the both of you I'm fine. I would yell to prove my point but then the two of you would probably freak out even more…" Sighed Valkyrie,  
"What about chocolate milk? I can get you normal chocolate if you want," Fletcher just looked at her, hoping she would open up.  
"We're not freaking out Val, we're concerned. Well I am at least; Fletcher could be trying to fatten you up to eat you." Skulduggery joked and cocked his head to the side,  
"Fletch, I'd very much like some chocolate. Could you give me a few minutes with Skulduggery and please go get some? I'll talk to you later, okay?" Fletcher nodded at Valkyrie and vanished before their eyes. "Oh, the advantages there are to having the world's last teleporter as your friend…" she thought.

Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie from the other side of the couch. Her long, dark brown hair draped over her tear-stained face, legs crossed like a school kid on the end of the couch looking at him. After a moment or two, she smiled at him and launched herself from the far left corner of the couch to where Skulduggery was sitting in the far right corner. She landed barely a centimetre in front of him before dropping onto him in a hug. He stroked her hair and listened to her breathe, watching her body rise and fall in time with it. She moved and wriggled her way into a more comfortable position and remained on top of him, smiling up at him before nuzzling into him even further. He could feel her surprisingly large breasts pushing up against his ribcage, her nipples. Her legs were wrapped around his skeleton, he was glad of the fact he was a skeleton sometimes, having flesh and blood would have made this moment awkward for the both of them. In a simple term, he was turned on by her.

She could feel her nipples harden as they softly grazed the outline of his ribcage through both of their sets of clothing. Her clitoris throbbed with anticipation for something that would never happen. She'd never really felt that way before, she jumped away from Skulduggery, blushing. He looked at her, concerned that once again something was wrong, but she smiled and he was relieved.  
"Now, before Fletcher gets back with your chocolate, what's been bothering you? You don't just cry." Skulduggery said seriously,  
"I know, it' just that, well… I feel like I'm under so much pressure with the whole Surge thing, and then in the car, I looked into the garden and I swear I saw Sanguine… I swear I did…" she faltered. Skulduggery paused and all was quiet. Nothing.  
"If he was here, he's not here now," he said feeling the air for disturbances, "did you want me to take you home? It's getting late,"  
"No thanks, I think I'll just stay here. Fletcher will be back with my chocolate soon and I said I'd talk to him…" she said solemnly.  
"You want to stay here alone?" he asked, the last thing he wanted was for her to be alone and something happen to her, Skulduggery didn't want anything to hurt her; she was everything to him.  
"I won't be alone," she started after a few seconds, "I'll ask Fletch to stay with me. He can seep in the guest room."  
"Alright, if you're sure… Good night, Valkyrie, be good." He said in a mock-serious voice.  
"'Night Skul, I'm always good!" she laughed as he walked out the door. Eventually she heard the Bentley drive off towards Cemetery road, where Skulduggery coincidentally lived.

Skulduggery slipped into the car and with a gentle thud he pulled the door shut. He sat there for a moment. "Sanguine. What would Sanguine be doing here..? Tanith!" he realised, "Had something happened to Tanith? He didn't attack us when we arrived; he must have seen the car with us and no Tanith and left to look for her elsewhere. He'll want to track her down, and there's only one detective great enough to do so…" Skulduggery thought as he finally backed out of the driveway towards his house on Cemetery road, where he knew Sanguine would be waiting for him.

Valkyrie was upstairs in what she had decided was her bedroom in her Uncles mansion. She walked out of the room and down the hall, reaching out of the door handle of the study two metres before she'd gotten to the door. She opened it and ran her fingers along the bookshelf of what was once her Uncle Gordon's study before he had died when she was twelve, and found the trigger just before the bookcase opened revealing Echo- Gordon.  
"Stephanie!" he cried, "My dear Stephanie! How are you?!"  
"I told you, it's Valkyrie, remember?" she laughed, "I'm doing fine, I'm expecting Fletcher to be here soon so I thought I'd come to you before he got back here"  
"So, you and Fletcher again, huh?" he said, slightly shocked and a little amused,  
"Ha! No! No." she laughed even harder this time, "Skulduggery told me he didn't want me here alone tonight so I told him I'd get Fletcher to stay with me, he's just gone to get me chocolate to cheer me up."  
"And why would a pretty girl like you need cheering up?"  
"It's been a long, long day, Uncle Gorgon. I'll go through the Surge soon and I'm going to need to choose between Elemental and Necromancy and I just got really, really freaked out and started crying." She said, "Then when we got here, I saw Sanguine and then started thinking about Tanith and then I got sort of upset. Skulduggery and Fletcher got pretty worried and wouldn't leave me alone about it. Everything's okay now though." She took in a deep breath and let it go, waiting for Echo-Gordon to respond.  
"Well Val, I'm positive that Skulduggery will handle any trouble with Sanguine and if you're sure that's all…"  
"I am."  
"In that case, your not-boyfriend will be arriving soon and you'll want to look good for that, no doubt. I'll speak with you later my sweet" he bid goodbye to his favourite niece and shrunk back into the echo-stone that stood on the desk where it projected him from. She quietly closed the secret door to Gordon's secret study and left the not-so-secret-study just as quietly. She ran straight for her room giggling, oh how right Gordon was – she was going to look stunning.

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**So, this is my first ever Fanficion and yes, it is Valduggery and yes there will be Fletcherie. It's a little strange, but that's okay, right? Right.  
**

**Please review, I need to know what people think! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.**

**Heartless - Chapter Two**

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Fletcher Renn popped into Gordon's living room and looked around for the young lady that was the object of his affections,

"Val...?" he called out from down stairs, she could hear him from her bedroom. She quickly fixed her hair and ran down the stairs toward Fletcher who was innocently standing in the centre of the living room with chocolates waiting for her. She flung herself onto the couch and gestured for him to sit next to her. As he sat down he handed her the box of chocolates, they were assorted and pretty to look at.  
"Where's Skulduggery?" he asked looking into her big, beautiful, brown eyes.  
"He's gone, I'm assuming he went home," she Valkyrie, looking a little guilty,  
"And you're staying here alone tonight instead of going home?" Fletcher looked puzzled, "I find it hard to believe he'd let you stay here alone" he finished.  
"Well… He's not letting me stay here alone. I told him I'd ask you to stay here with me tonight… Will you? If it's okay..?" she stared up at the ceiling in wait of a response.  
"It would be my pleasure," he smiled. Valkyrie stood up, her dark purple silk and black lace nightie falling just below her bum. It framed her body, tight around her chest making her breasts look double their actual size, lightly touching on her hips and falling delicately over her bottom. Fletcher stared. He hadn't even looked at her properly when she had descended from the stairs, at the time she just looked like a dark, purple blur.

Valkyrie moved all of her long, dark brown hair to rest over her right shoulder, revealing her delicate neck to Fletcher, _"Thank heavens he isn't Caelian…"_ Valkyrie thought. Fletcher shuffled slightly where he was on the couch, probably trying to avoid staring at the magnificent figure standing before him, a figure that didn't rival the beauty of China Sorrows herself, but over took it. China would have been furious. Valkyrie bent down to look at the decently sized DVD collection encased below the television, she ran her fingers along the cases until she picked one out at random – she really didn't care which movie she watched. She placed it in the DVD player and ran back to the couch, sitting next to Fletcher.  
"What are we watching?" he asked, deliberately looking at her face,  
"No idea. I think I just wanted some background noise and a bit of a distraction or something," she glanced at him and sat cross legged on the couch beside him.  
"So Val, what was wrong before?" Fletcher started,  
"Nothing really, it was just a pretty emotional day, and then I started thinking about Tanith and that's when I got upset in the car and stuff…" She didn't look like she was going to cry, but he pulled her into a hug anyway. She could feel his heart beating through his chest, and he could feel her heart racing. He pulled her in closer, and she yawned as he picked up a blanket off the floor with his spare hand and laid it over the two of them before they snuggled down into the couch together and fell asleep.

At 9:30 am the next morning, Skulduggery Pleasant unlocked the door to Gordon's mansion and walked into the living room to a surprising scene. Valkyrie Cain was curled up into Fletcher Renn on the green lounge, covered by a light purple blanket.  
"Ahem." Skulduggery cleared his throat, waking up Fletcher and completely startling Valkyrie. Fletcher aimed his head at Skulduggery and looked at him, not knowing what to do. At the same time, Valkyrie tipped off of the lounge entangled in the purple blanket. She squealed in surprise and threw it off of her. She stood up and the silk nightie fell to its extremely short length. Needless to say, it was awkward.  
Fletcher broke to silence, "Morning Skul," Skulduggery didn't look too pleased.  
"What's going on here?" Skulduggery said, slightly amused at the situation.  
"…Nothing. Nothing at all is going on here." Fletcher stated firmly, probably trying to affirm his belief that he, like Skulduggery, can be powerful in conversation. Skulduggery looked at him and Valkyrie raised her eyebrow.  
"Ignore him, Skul, nothing happened. He hugged me while we were watching some movie and we were comfortable and just kind of fell asleep." Said Valkyrie looking up with a look of innocence on her face, Skulduggery didn't buy it.  
"Nice, um, is it underwear..?" Skulduggery asked her, genuinely wondering whether or not what she was wearing was underwear or night clothes.  
"It's a nightie", she glared back at him and he laughed.  
"May I speak with you upstairs, Val? About two different things now, apparently…" he looked at Fletcher upon speaking his last sentence.  
"Sure," she said, leading Skulduggery up the stairs, completely aware that he could see quite easily up her nightie.

"Valkyrie, what the hell do you think you're doing? What the hell do you think you're wearing?" Skulduggery asked. His voice rose as he spoke to her.  
"I'm not doing anything, and I think I'm wearing my nightie," she looked down at her purple, silk nightie, "Yep. I'm definitely wearing my nightie. We've already been over this, haven't we?" she responded, annoyed.  
"Good god. Val, I could of mistaken it- wait, I did, mistake it- for lingerie! What are you doing wearing THAT pathetic excuse for a night gown around FLETCHER!?" he was yelling now, and all Valkyrie wanted to do was disappear, like Fletcher could have if he were in the same situation as she.  
"Skulduggery… I didn't, well, I just sort of wanted to actually, you know, catch someone's eye for a change?" she faltered, feeling utterly disgraceful.  
"What's brought this on? This sudden desire for attention from the opposite sex, I can't really blame it on puberty and hormones this time because we've already been through all that."  
"When people look at me, they think of me killing gods, beating up men double my age and older, they see me as someone that's far less than beautiful, something more along the lines of a world-saving-monster."  
"Now Valkyrie, there is nothing wrong with being a monster. You go saying things like that to Nessie, the Lock Ness Monster over in Scotland and she'd be deviated! She is a very beautiful creature, that Nessie, and don't you go telling her otherwise."  
"The Lock Ness Monster is real, and her name is actually _Nessie_ like in those stupid legends?"  
"Of course not, don't be daft!" he said, making her feel like a total idiot, "what I was MEAN'T to be getting at is you're not a monster, people don't see you as a monster. Dusk is a monster. Caelian was a monster. At the moment with that damned remnant inside of her, Tanith is a monster – well, to some degree. YOU, young Valkyrie, are not a monster. You are a beautiful young lady that just so happens to be able to not only throw a decent punch, but can also throw fire from her bare hands. How many other girls do you know that fit that description?" Skulduggery told her, completely seriously.  
"You really mean that?" she asked, blushing and smiling,  
"Of course I do. Now go put some pants on before Fletcher has anything else to think about later tonight when he's home alone."  
"Oh." Was all Valkyrie had to say before she picked up her clothes that never creased or wrinkled, still bushing, and left the room, stepping into the bathroom to shower and get changed.

Downstairs, Skulduggery found Fletcher in the kitchen making two coffees. Fletcher looked up and smiled weakly, it almost looked like a sympathetic smile. Skulduggery sat down on one of the four, faded red kitchen stools.  
"You're not mad at me, are you Skul?" Fletcher asked as he poured a small amount of milk into the first coffee cup.  
"No, I'm not. Fletcher, I know nothing happened between the two of you last night, I just need to know one thing;" Skulduggery said, hoping Fletcher would be willing to tell him.  
"Shoot," Fletcher replied, "but not literally…"  
"Fletcher, WHY did nothing happen? You and I both know that you would do anything to be with her again, and last night you know that she would have let you… well, do anything." Fletcher looked at the ground, took in a deep breath and quickly let it out again,  
"Yesterday was an emotional day for her, and I don't think she's in the right state of mind right now. I think I would have been taking advantage of her… She's only 17. I'm not willing to take away whatever innocence she has left. I don't know what she's done with anyone else, but every time we've been alone together the furthest we've gone has still involved keeping our clothes on."  
"Wow. Fletcher, that's very good of you. Thank you, for not taking advantage of my partner".  
"Any time," Fletcher was worried about Valkyrie, she wasn't acting like herself. He loved her, he always would, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.

Half an hour later, Fletcher had teleported back home and Valkyrie and Skulduggery were in the Bentley on the way to the Sanctuary. She wasn't entirely sure why they were going to the Sanctuary, but Valkyrie knew it must have been important.  
"You said there were two things you wanted to talk to me about this morning," she stated.  
"I'm sorry?" Skulduggery asked, still maintaining his focus on the road,  
"This morning you said there was TWO things you wanted to talk to me about, the first was obviously what we spoke about earlier, but what's the second?"  
"Well you see, I went home last night thinking about why Sanguine would have been here. Of course I'd figured out why long before I'd even reached Cemetery road," he started before Valkyrie looked up at him as if she were actually shocked that he would use a time like now to boast about himself. Skulduggery continued "Tanith has gone missing. Billy-Ray has misplaced her and of course he came to the home of the world famous skeleton detective, Skulduggery Pleasant's home in search of help in finding her."  
"So, he came by Gordon's looking for her but didn't want to ask for help with the three of us there or something?" she put everything together in her head, "Makes sense."  
"That it does. Of course I agreed to help him, on one condition of course."  
"And that would be…?"  
"That he'll give her over to us so we can remove the remnant." He said, sounding a lot more serious than before.  
"And he agreed?"  
"He actually loves her, Val. He's willing to do anything to ensure her safety. It's quite cute actually, you know, the whole giving up his true love for her safety and happiness?"  
"Wow." Was all Valkyrie could manage to say, obviously shocked that Billy-Ray Sanguine, the hit-man, was in love her best friend.

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**Please Review! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.******

Heartless - Chapter Three

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"Why are we going to the Sanctuary? Like, I know that we work there, but you haven't exactly filled me in on why EXACTLY we're going today, on a SATURDAY." Valkyrie said after pondering over the idea of bringing Tanith back.  
"Because Ghastly and Ravel want to discuss ridding Tanith of that parasite we politely call a remnant. Well, Ghastly doesn't really want to; he's scared after what happened between him and Tanith before she was possessed." Skulduggery answered in reply.  
"They just kissed, and they love each other really. I know Tanith does and we both know Ghastly does. I know it's been a long time, but love doesn't just turn off. It doesn't." Valkyrie stated.  
"How can you be sure of that, Val?" Skulduggery's voice said quietly in reply,  
"Love is forever. You can love someone more than someone else, but you still love the first person… You can have crushes on people; they don't last forever, but real love… REAL love lasts forever, even longer than a life time. You still love your wife don't you, and your child? You'll always love them even though they're no longer alive, but you know what? Love is so amazing that you can love someone else too." Skulduggery was silent for a moment, almost shocked at this young girl's comprehension of love,  
"Well put, Valkyrie. Well put."

They pulled up at the Sanctuary in Roarhaven and got out of the car, a large smile was firmly planted on Valkyrie's lips. She was more than excited that there was a chance that her best friend could be coming back, it would be difficult though, and she had prepared herself for the discussion of the matter that was bound to be brought up in the meeting being held at the Sanctuary. The only thing left to do, otherwise, would be to actually track down Tanith. Sanguine had agreed to help; Skulduggery had told her earlier in the car trip that Sanguine said that before she went missing Remnant-Tanith had started acting strange. To Valkyrie's surprise, Skulduggery had thought of why and compared Tanith to a seagull stating that, "perhaps she's run away to die, the way a seagull flies out to sea to do the same". A shocked Valkyrie had winced at this statement.  
The walked into the Sanctuary, Valkyrie was in direct pursuit of Skulduggery. They headed for what Skulduggery jokingly called "the throne room" where Elder Bespoke and Grand Mage Ravel would sit in their over-the-top chairs. Ghastly Bespoke and Erskine Ravel were waiting for them in "the throne room" and stood when they entered the room, Ghastly walked up to Valkyrie and embraced her in a soft hug and whispered in her ear,  
"I've heard you haven't been doing so well at the moment, if you ever need someone to confide in, you come to me. Understand?" he stood back and smiled to her and she smiled back, nodding. He confidently walked back to where Ravel had seated himself again; Ravel looked at him suspiciously but otherwise ignored the sudden contact he'd witnessed between Ghastly and Valkyrie. A few moments later, Fletcher waltzed through the door.  
"What is he doing here?" Valkyrie asked, her eyes darting towards Skulduggery,  
"I invited him to the meeting of course. He's just as much a part of this as anyone else" Skulduggery calmly replied, noting the look of nervousness that had swept across her gorgeous face.

Skulduggery kicked off the inevitable conversation about finding Tanith. He disclosed to them all of the information and all of what Sanguine had said to Skulduggery the night before. They could all see the pained look on Ghastly's face. Skulduggery thought to himself about how he would feel if Valkyrie had run off, similarly to if she had eloped, with a murderous criminal and then suddenly disappeared. It wasn't a good feeling, even if it was imaginary. "So, we'll have Ghastly, Nye and myself will work to find a way to be rid of the remnant, Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and Fletcher will find Tanith and bring her back here as soon as possible. Are there any disagreements? No? All good, then let's go." Ravel loudly announced to the group of mages, sitting tight and ready to find someone that should have been sitting with them that very moment.

"Skulduggery," Fletcher began while sitting back in the Bentley,  
"Yes, Fletcher?" Skulduggery answered,  
"I think I might know where Tanith is…"  
"And where might that be?"  
"This cave I went to a few times. You see, back when I, uh, had a crush on Tanith I took her to this really pretty cave and I showed her around and how it leads to the ocean and how to get there from the mainland and stuff… She told me that if she ever needed a place to hide, that cave would be it."  
"When we get to my house, you teleport us there, right?"  
"Sure…" was Fletchers reply.  
Valkyrie swung herself around the passenger seat and flung herself into the back of the Bentley next to Fletcher, he smiled at her like a total goon but that's okay, because she liked it.

They pulled up at Skulduggery's house on Cemetery Road, got out and Fletcher grabbed Valkyrie's hand as she tightened her grip on Skulduggery's hand, fletcher hadn't noticed that they were already holding hands. He'd have to remind himself to speak to her later. The vanished instantly and reappeared a second or two later in the most beautiful cave that Valkyrie had ever laid eyes on. The roof of the cave was almost rainbow, just strangely, almost magically, reflecting the water onto a glowing pattern of the water just half a meter away from the three of them onto the roof. Fletcher showed them around and eventually they made their way to the main, larger part of the cave and noticed the remains of what had recently been a fire, beside it sat a pair of leather boots. The three of them instantly recognised them as the boots Ghastly had made of Tanith when he made Valkyries new jacket, she'd been there and she'd come back, if not for her boots then for the safety.

Four hours passed and still nothing. Fletcher had been teleporting from one part of the cave to another and occasionally he'd disappear completely and come back with food or some kind of entertainment. Valkyrie had asked him to get her a good book, when he'd returned he told her he had gotten her the best and longest book he'd ever read, "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr Seuss.  
"Unbelievable," was her reply.  
Suddenly Skulduggery stood,  
"Valkyrie, what on earth are you doing?"  
"I do not like them Sam I am! I do not like green eggs and ham!" she cried, sounding dazed and brain-dead.  
"Valkyrie!" she shook her head and looked at him,  
"Yes?" she replied.  
"What on Earth were you doing?"  
"Reading this stupid book out loud…"  
"Val, the book is on the other side of the cave. Have you memorised it..?"  
"Well, I must've." She said, glancing at the book that lay open on the cold, rock ground.  
"Good God. Fletcher, look what you've done!" he looked at Fletcher and Fletcher looked apologetically over at Valkyrie,  
"I'm going insane, that's a sign that we can do something fun now instead, right?"  
"No. We're waiting." Just as the words exited his lipless mouth, he noticed Valkyrie looking at him, a familiar look, and he remembered why he'd first fallen in love with her so long ago, she was everything to him. Then they heard a thud coming from the entrance from the cave. The three looked at each other before turning and looking at the woman standing before them that had run down to the main cave from the entrance, probably expecting no one to be there. Her tight, leather clothes were clinging to her body and her long, wavy blonde hair partially pinned back, keeping it out of her dirty face. Valkyrie looked at Tanith, she could've sworn that she was herself again, that was until Tanith's light, pink lips turned to black, vein by vein. Valkyrie felt something that felt like something tugging on her heart, making it sink. Valkyrie blinked and turned around, Fletcher was gone. _"Ugh. Trust Fletcher to leave as soon as Tanith finally turns up," _Valkyrie thought to herself.

Tanith pounced. Skulduggery threw Valkyrie to the ground and out of the way of the woman readying herself to attack them. Valkyrie rolled over onto her side and sent shadows from her necromancy ring that tangled around Tanith's feet, pulling her to the ground. Skulduggery threw fire at the woman, feet entangled in shadows, causing her to slow her attack. Suddenly Fletcher appeared behind Tanith, his hand on Sanguine's shoulder. _"Genius," _Skulduggery and Valkyrie thought. Fletcher left Sanguine behind Tanith; she still hadn't noticed them, and Fletcher teleported to where Valkyrie and Skulduggery were standing.  
"Tanith, darlin'?" Sanguine started in his strong, Texan drawl, "Leave them. Come on, we can get out of here and everythin'll be fine." Tanith turned around as much as she could without falling over the shadows.  
"Don't you 'darlin'' me! You betrayed me! That teleporter brought you here, don't you think I'm stupid!" she sneered in her strong English accent.  
"You ain't been actin' yourself lately, darlin'. I just want to help you. I'm sorry."  
"Sorry about wha-" but before she could finish her question, he grabbed her, and pushed her into the wall, trapping her left arm and leg, and her right hand and the back of her right leg. She couldn't move.  
"Well, that was easier than expected," Skulduggery murmured under his breath, knowing well that everyone could hear him.

Ghastly and Ravel sat around a large pile of papers that had spilled off the table and onto the floor of the Sanctuary. After hours of searching for a potential solution they had come up with nothing, nothing but the one 'solution' Nye had found while searching around the medical facilities. It had told them exactly what it had found, almost breaking Ghastly's heart in doing so,  
"According to these reports, the only way to get rid of a remnant that's been inside it's host as long as Tanith is to kill the host and in doing so, kill the remnant," Nye had told them,  
"We are NOT killing Tanith," is all Ravel could say. At that moment Fletcher, Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Sanguine and Tanith appeared before them. They all stood and Valkyrie fell to the ground, a little dazed and she felt queasy, that hadn't happened for a while.

After Tanith was escorted carefully by the cleavers through the Sanctuary toward the cells, Valkyrie had recovered and everyone else was discussing what Nye had put forward before they had arrived.  
"We're NOT killing Tanith!" Skulduggery yelled.  
"That's exactly what Ravel said, but we may not have a choice. It's the only thing we can do for the sake of those she might hurt and for her. The real Tanith that is…" Ghastly said, his voice was wobbling. At this point, Valkyrie intercepted the conversation,  
"Why does Tanith need to die in order for the remnant to leave her?"  
"Because, Valkyrie, when Tanith dies the remnant inside of her dies too, but this time forever," answered Nye, it's back turned to her. Valkyrie turned to Skulduggery, and Skulduggery looked at her, admiring her beautiful face, but mostly trying to figure out why she'd turned to him.  
"Nye, can I talk to you? Alone?" she said, suddenly sounding serious,  
"Come, this way," it started, "into the medical bay. Is anything wrong?"  
"No, nothing's wrong," she answered,  
"Then why are we in here?" it said, slowly moving it's fingers down its face and over the scab it had where it's nose should have been.  
"Do you remember when you sealed my name?"  
"How could I forget? You almost walked out, you would have died."  
"But when I was in there I was already dead. If we take Tanith there she'd die, the remnant would die and when she leaves she'd no longer have the remnant!" Valkyrie exclaimed wildly. Nye took a moment to ponder over this idea, but it couldn't find any faults. It was true; once the remnant died once more it would be dead and gone forever.  
"That's an intriguing idea. Come, you must tell the others," he said before trying to lead her out the door,  
"No! I can't. No one but Skulduggery, you and I know that I had my heart taken out, drawn on and put back just to seal my name. They'll ask why, and what it is and why I had it sealed…"  
"We'll just forget to mention it."  
"Oh, alright... Let's go then."

Valkyrie and Nye re-entered the room, the group of people looking at them wide eyed;  
"Valkyrie has thought of a solution and yes, I do think it will work." Nye's interesting voice began as they walked to their seats. Valkyrie whispered to Skulduggery telling him to play along with whatever was said. Nye continued,  
"Valkyrie found me once, she found me in my old warehouse back when I was doing my experiments, years ago." It looked at her and Valkyrie continued,  
"It's how I met Caelian too," she began, looking down and feeling the guilt of cheating on Fletcher rise up again, "he lead me to a banshee, who led me to the dullahan that took me to Nye. I didn't tell anyone, not even Skulduggery… When I entered the dullahan's coach I died. When I left it I entered Nye's warehouse, being in there kept me dead, but a different kind of dead. When he… cut me open and started experimenting on me, I was alive but I was dead. I couldn't feel it, I couldn't feel anything and I had no motivation to change that. I wasn't a zombie either, nothing like Scapegrace. When I forced him to fix me and let me out he did. It wasn't easy."  
Everyone was silent, shocked. Ghastly felt the sudden urge to kill Nye right there and then, Ravel looked Valkyrie up and down, then looked away, trying not to imagine her dead and Nye breaking her bones and tearing her apart. Skulduggery stood,  
"There's no need to punish Nye, and this has been dealt with according to my standards. It is sorry and although I will never trust him there is no need for further punishment or injury to it," he said calmly.  
"You knew about this, and let him work here? Beside us, fix Valkyrie again after THAT?!" Ghastly cried before turning to Valkyrie, "…and you! What on Earth did you think you were doing?! Why were you going after this monster in the first place?! AND without Skulduggery?!"  
"Ghastly, if Valkyrie wasn't okay with it being here, I would have killed it" Skulduggery started, "Valkyrie is a stubborn, stubborn, annoying, smart, stubborn, adventurous, difficult, stubborn girl, now that is not her fault please don't make her feel any worse,".  
Fletcher, not knowing what to do, stood up and walked over to Valkyrie, who looked like she'd swallowed a bug and was about to cry, and wrapped his arms around her. Valkyrie was secretly happy that the girl in Australia had broken up with him for some other Australian loser. Fletcher kissed her on the cheek without anyone noticing and she smiled a tiny, secretive grin up at him. Fletcher pulled out from the hug and moved beside her, his arm around her waist. Skulduggery seethed with jealousy.  
"Valkyrie, why are you telling us this?" asked Ravel,  
"Well, if we take Tanith there, she'd die and the remnant would die and never come back, but as soon as Tanith steps foot outside, she'd no long have the remnant…" she answered.  
"That's… that's genius," said Ravel, still trying to comprehend everything that had just been discussed.

Tanith struggled as the cleavers pulled her out of the cell. She hadn't a clue where she was being taken and if it was a higher security cell then this one then she was more than happy to stay put. All of a sudden a boy with ridiculous hair appeared in front of her. Fletcher put his hand on her shoulder and they teleported. They appeared next to the Bentley, outside a warehouse. They'd had to drive out to the warehouse, sectioned off by police tape planted by the sanctuary years ago, because Fletcher had never been there before. Skulduggery put his arm around Tanith and pulled her forward using all of his strength against her, Tanith was forcefully pulling back. Eventually Skulduggery managed to push her across the barrier and Tanith was in, she was dead. She remained standing, but her body had slouched down a bit, Valkyrie and Ghastly were fighting back every urge to not go and help her, or do something, anything to bring her back.

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	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.**

Heartless - Chapter Four

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The black drained from Tanith's lips, slowly, one vein slowly after the other and her eyes darted from one side of the door frame to the other. The remnant was obviously trying to figure out what was going on, but before it could Tanith fell to the floor. The remnant was dead, it had escaped Tanith's falling body but as it did so it turned to dust, it was the colour of ash and now littered the ground. Everything fell silent, they waited. Without warning Tanith bolted upright, causing the others to stumble back a few steps to prepare themselves for if there was some sort of fight or struggle. Tanith looked up at them, got up slowly and crossed over to where Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Fletcher, Ghastly, Ravel and Sanguine were standing.  
"Skulduggery..? Valkyrie..?" she asked, totally confused by whatever was going on.  
"Tanith… You're back!" cried Valkyrie, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't stop herself from smiling.  
"I'm back? Where was –"she cut off, "Oh, now it's coming back…"  
"But it's alright Tanith, we know none of it was actually you," Valkyrie said to her, holding Tanith up.  
"If none of it was actually her, does that mean she won't want nothin' to do with me anymore?" Sanguine asked, aiming the question at Valkyrie or anyone else that could answer him, but he was looking at Tanith.  
"Billy-Ray… I'm sorry… That just, it just isn't who I am…" Tanith replied softly,  
"No, darlin'. You're safe and I know you're safe, that's all that matters to me. Now, if y'all don't mind me leavin'? I swear I won't be getting up to no good for a while, at least nothin' of concern to you folk," Sanguine said in his strong, southern drawl. Skulduggery nodded to him, and Billy-Ray Sanguine descended into the ground. Skulduggery looked over at Valkyrie; she was looking at Tanith with a large smile plastered on her face.

Tanith sat on Valkyrie's bed in Gordon's house, Valkyrie by her side. Valkyrie explained everything Tanith had missed and Tanith was more than eager to get in on the details.  
"Tell me about what's going on with Fletcher and Skulduggery! The other day the seemed so tense… What've I missed? Besides everything, I mean." She asked before sighing. Valkyrie looked to her, wishing she could somehow make Tanith feel better,  
"I haven't noticed anything, it's all been pretty much the same between the two of them."  
"Skulduggery told me about how he walked in on you and Fletcher… Val, is there something you've forgotten to mention?" Tanith said, she was laughing as Valkyrie's face turned a purple-ish shade of red,  
"Nothing happened, I swear, nothing happened!" Valkyrie cried at Tanith. Tanith was laughing as if Valkyrie had told her a hilarious joke.  
"You like him, don't you?" Tanith finally asked her,  
"It's complicated…" Valkyrie responded.  
"Go on then. I can handle complicated, trust me. I've been in love with one man for years but started dating a Texan hit-man instead." She laughed.  
"I love Skulduggery. I can't even say it any differently than that. When I'm with him it feels like the warm sun is shining on my bare skin, even if it's cloudy, cold, raining and I'm covered head to toe in clothes. All I want to be is his."  
"And what you're not around him?"  
"When I'm not around him… I feel this weird attraction to him, but I deny all feelings for him to myself. It's the strangest sensation. I don't know if I want to deny it any more, I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me to turn off my negative thoughts, get up and do something about it."  
"I see. So why don't you do something about it? Also, when I asked if you liked 'him' I meant Fletcher. This… I definitely was not expecting."  
"Oh… It's funny you say that, because the reason I haven't done anything about my feelings for Skulduggery is that I like Fletcher. Not as much as Skulduggery, but I like him a lot…"  
"Oh god, Val…"  
"I know… Anything that happens with Fletcher wouldn't last the way it would with someone I love…" Valkyrie said slowly,  
"Like Skulduggery… Give Fletch another chance, now that this Myra chick you were telling me about it out of the picture it's worth a shot. Skulduggery would never forgive himself if he even touched you; you're still only a kid to him." Tanith said, finishing Valkyrie's sentence.

"I am not 'only a kid'! I've experienced so much, more than most people ever would in their lifetime! I've killed gods, I've helped kill people, I've been beaten up, set on fire, almost drowned, faced so, so many criminals – murderers too! I've been almost killed by my almost-boyfriend when he tried to tear me apart, I was dead once too! Did you know that? I was dead! That's how we saved you, through my experience of being dead! If someone thinks I'm just a kid, then they have no idea how wrong they are! How many 17 year old girls go through that? Huh?! How many?! One in five? Uh, no. Wrong. How many people do you know are going to destroy the world? How many? Four? Five? One! That's how many, one! Me! I'm going to kill my own parents while I'm at it too, and Alice? Well she's probably going to die too! I'm Darquesse! I am going to kill everyone I know sometime in the next few years!" Valkyrie screamed, tears streaming down her face. She was shocked at herself. She had just screamed out her darkest secret, but instead of judging her, Tanith pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair whispering that she loved her into Valkyrie's ear.

_Tanith placed her hand on Valkyrie's thigh; it slowly slipped its way up her leg toward the zipper on her light blue, denim jeans. Tanith felt Valkyrie lean in toward her before feeling the hot of her breath on her neck. Tanith ripped her clothes off and threw them onto the floor before heading for Valkyries jeans, unzipping them quickly before taking them off and adding them to the messy pile of clothes Tanith had begun creating on the floor. All focus was on Valkyrie, as Fletcher watched the pair from the arm chair in the corner of the room. Valkyrie, now wearing nothing but a small, pink thong, leaped onto Tanith, feeling her average sized breasts and kissing her like there was no tomorrow. Fletcher had never met such a beautiful, sexy creature before Valkyrie; Tanith came in at third, right behind China Sorrows. Even though she was a double crossing monster, he had to admit she was beautiful. Valkyrie now lay on the bed on her back, legs spread. Her breasts were soft pools of flesh, her nipples, hard and begging for someone to touch them, to taste them, but Tanith was busy between Valkyrie's legs. She licked and flicked at Valkyrie's clitoris with her tongue, using two fingers to penetrate her as she did so. Fletcher took his chance and buried his face in Valkyrie's large breasts, licking and sucking on her erect nipples. He unzipped his pants, revealing his strong, hard length, and slipped it inside of Valkyrie, who screamed with pleasure, Tanith lent down, kissing Valkyrie passionately as he did so.  
"Fletcher," he heard Valkyries voice say, "Fletcher!" she called to him. _

"Fletch! Hello? Wake up!" Valkyrie called to Fletcher from the door way of one of the guest rooms in Gordon's house. Fletcher sat up, embarrassed as if she could read his thoughts. She looked confused, turned to him once more and said,  
"Come down stairs and get breakfast with me?" her eyes were wide, making her look so innocent; making him feel so guilty for having such thoughts about her.  
"Sure. Where's Tanith?" he felt stupid for asking. They continued down the staircase and into the kitchen where he poured each of the two of them a glass of water, Fletcher took a sip of his water.  
"Still asleep in my room, we were stayed up almost all night taking and ended up just sleeping together," she answered him. He spat out his water in pure shock, then he realised;  
"Oh God, Fletcher! No! Not like that! Not with Tanith at least…" she winked at him; he had to use everything in him to not spit out the rest of his water.  
"What do you mean, Val..?" he asked, genuinely curious of where she was going with this.  
"Fletch, do you like me? As in like, LIKE me?" she smiled at him,  
"Well… Yes. You're different Val! Myra was all like, 'You're so cool Fletcher!', 'You're the hottest Fletcher' and it was great at first, as you can imagine, but it got boring. You're just so… spectacular. She was boring, you're interesting. She smiles at babies, you kill gods!" he answered her, holding her hand in his.  
"Good. So it's settled. You'll pick me up eight and we're going to dinner. I need to visit Skulduggery at some point today too…" She smiled at him, he smiled back and he leaned in.

As their lips touched they teleported, they ended up just outside Skulduggery's house. Fletcher pulled away from her,  
"See ya later!" he said to her as he teleported back to Gordon's house so that when Tanith woke up she wouldn't feel completely abandoned.

"That's what Finbar said, others have been seeing the same. You have to tell her, Skulduggery. The first traces of Darquesse are right there! How do they tie in with her? How do they tie in with you? Why the hell are you even involved?" Valkyrie heard Ghastly shouting, obviously at Skulduggery, through the wood of the front door.  
"Ghastly, she's there! She's right there with me! We fell in love, I still love her. When she left then, I had no idea I'd ever see her again, so I found someone new; my wife. You were there when I first met her… I threw fire at her while aiming at you…" Skulduggery answered.  
"I was more hoping you didn't notice that they're the same person. It's been five years, why do you suddenly care now?"  
"When we met her she was 17, about to turn 18, just like us. Guess how old she is now."  
"17, about to turn 18," Ghastly whispered.

_"Who is this un-aging woman they're talking about? She's been around since Skulduggery was 17 and they fell in love, that's something like 1631, 1632 or something, isn't it? Why can't he love me? What's wrong with me? No, wait. Valkyrie shut the hell up. You're going on a date with Fletcher tonight, you're going to forget about the unforgettable skeleton detective and have a nice night out with Fletcher." _Valkyrie thought. She swallowed the saliva in her mouth and knocked on the door. A skeleton where a large brimmed hat and a blue pin-striped suit answered the door, even though he had no face Valkyrie could tell he was shocked to see her.  
"Hi!" she said, as she hugged him tightly, "I want your help with something. You too Ghastly!"

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	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.**

**Heartless - Chapter 5**

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"What is it Val? Is something wrong?" Skulduggery asked, hoping like hell Valkyrie hadn't heard them talking.  
"Nope, I'm quite content right now. I wouldn't say I'm overly thrilled, but I'm happy," she replied.  
"And why's that?"  
"I have a date tonight." Skulduggery seemed shocked. Ghastly's eye grew wider, he hated when Valkyrie went out on dates. Every guy she'd dated since Fletcher had turned out to be a total scum bag, they didn't hurt her specifically but Ghastly knew that Valkyrie always felt bad after a date with these guys. He fancied himself to be like a fatherly figure to her, in the magical world at least since her real father, Desmond, had no idea.  
"With whom?" Skulduggery replied,  
"It's uh, Fletcher,"  
"Fletcher?",  
"Yes, Fletcher,"  
"Fletcher Renn?",  
"Yes, him,"  
"The teleporter?",  
"Yes! Fletcher Renn, the teleporter that we hang out with," Valkyrie stated, slightly frustrated. Skulduggery burst out laughing, although the others couldn't tell, he was laughing in an attempt to cover up the fact that he was jealous. Ghastly shot him a look, basically telling him to shut up and be supportive.  
"Why do you need our help with that, Valkyrie?" Ghastly asked her, "Do you not want to go out with him?"  
"I do. I think. I don't know, I think I should give him another chance. He's been really nice lately and caring and I think I have like, a small crush on him…" she said, Skulduggery winced at the thought of Valkyrie being with Fletcher.  
"What I want help with," she continued, "Is what to wear."  
"Well, with Ghastly's amazing skill in tailoring, and my impeccable dress sense, we'll have you looking prettier than a goose." Skulduggery said.  
"A goose? You think I look like a goose?" Valkyrie responded,  
"Geese are pretty, aren't they?"  
"No, I believe you may be thinking of swans,"  
"Oh, then you'll be pretty than a swan," he said. Valkyrie sighed and Ghastly led her into a separate room of the house to get started on finding something suitable to wear.

Valkyrie spoke to Ghastly as he took her measurements,  
"I don't think I want to look all dressed up, or too casual. I want to look nice but like I'm not even trying, even though I am. I want to look nice for Fletcher for a change." She spoke.  
"Valkyrie, are you sure it's Fletcher you want to look nice for?" Ghastly whispered to her,  
"What do you mean?" she whispered back, she didn't want Skulduggery to hear any of this.  
"I know you like Fletcher and you have a crush on him and he's closer to your age, Val, but you don't love him the way you love someone else, do you?"  
"Ghastly, how do you know everything?" she continued whispering with a smile across her face.  
"I can tell by the way you look at him, and talk to him, and talk about him."  
"I don't think I love him. I like him, but I don't know if I love him. I told Tanith that I did, but maybe I was exaggerating…" she sighed,  
"Give it time. You'll figure it all out. Until then you can enjoy your dates with whomever you like," Ghastly said as he finished off the outfit for Valkyrie, it was magnificent. The pants were black leather and clung to her skin as if it were wet, the shirt was a dark blue blend of cotton and silk that covered her arms and plunged at the neckline revealing her cleavage. She loved it, it was perfect.

Skulduggery had been sitting in the living room of his house for over an hour waiting for Ghastly to finish dressing Valkyrie. He had heard her telling him that she didn't want to look all dressed up, but she didn't want to look to casual – she wanted to look really nice for Fletcher. After that Skulduggery heard them whispering, probably about boring tailor stuff. He heard a door click open and Ghastly walked through proudly, followed by Valkyrie. She looked incredible, Skulduggery was more than jealous that she was going to be spending the evening with Fletcher wearing THAT. He made a mental note to yell at Ghastly later for making her look that good for Fletcher, then he made another mental note to stop being jealous of a teenaged boy with ridiculous hair. Then it hit him. The familiar outfit, the blue shirt, the black pants, the way the colour of her pants reciprocated that of her silky, dark hair. He had seen this all before.

"What do you think, Skul?" she said as she twirled a little beside Ghastly, Ghastly looked at her and raised his eye brow.  
"You look lovely, dear," he said sarcastically, she smiled at him and skipped over and sat on his lap,  
"You didn't even look! Can you see it better now?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around his bony neck.  
"Yes, yes. I see it. You look very beautiful." His bone finger tracing the familiar seams along her waist, he looked up for a moment and noticed Ghastly looking straight at him, shaking his head. Skulduggery immediately stopped, peeled Valkyrie's toned arms from around his neck and gently scooted her off of him. The look on her face after that could only be described as deflated, he got up and hugged her tightly.  
"Be careful tonight, young lady. Have fun though." He looked at her and she smiled before thanking Ghastly and running off to get changed back into her normal clothes so she could get on with the rest of her day.

Dressed in her usual clothes, new outfit in hand, Valkyrie stepped out into the living room and plopped herself down on the coffee table. Skulduggery and Ghastly were gone. She had no clue where they might have gone; she didn't even have any inkling of an idea of where they may have disappeared to. She covered her new clothes with a suit bag Ghastly had found in Skulduggery's closet and called Fletcher. Upon her asking, he teleported into Skulduggery's house, grabbed her hand and teleported them back to Gordon's house before she even had the opportunity to greet him. Valkyrie had found herself spending more and more time at Gordon's house, which she guessed she should probably start calling her house. She figured it would help in the transition of actually moving in when she turned 18, which would be in about 3 months.  
"I thought I wasn't picking you up until tonight?" he questioned, sticking his tongue out at her,  
"I didn't really have a choice. I walked back into the living room and Skulduggery was suddenly gone, as was Ghastly."  
"Ghastly was there? Why?"  
"I'm not sure, actually… Maybe they were busy today anyway and I just interrupted them."  
"Pft. Skulduggery, busy, without you? Not a chance," Fletcher stated before teleporting home.

It was 7:30pm and Valkyrie sat on the porch of Gordon's house, sitting in wait of Fletcher. She had done her hair up, with loose little bits of hair dangling in front of her face. She looked pretty, in that sense. She wore the outfit Ghastly had made for her earlier that day, accompanied by black boots with a small heel of about five to six centimetres. She was ready. She looked up from her freshly painted finger nails to see a figure emerging from the front garden, Valkyrie stood.  
"Miss Cain?" the figure asked. It was a woman's voice.  
"That would be me," Valkyrie replied,  
"Oh good, that makes everything so much easier!" the woman said with delight in her voice. As she approached, Valkyrie could see the figure much clearer, she had dark, curly hair, gentle blue eyes and a friendly face.  
"Who are you?" Valkyrie asked the woman,  
"My name is Alanis Priestly, and before you ask why I'm here, I'll tell you; I'm here because an old friend of mine told me a couple years ago that you're trouble. You'll have heard of her, most mages have heard of Melancholia. Yeah, well, I travelled back to when she told me that and told her what she's up to in the future, unfortunately for the both of you, she's doing nothing these days. So she told me to deal with the future you. Since I'm not big on revenge, here's the plan, you're going away for a little while – you might even like it. I'm bored and to be quite honest with you, I really just want to mess up a few things." Alanis said to Valkyrie.  
"How do you intend on doing that?" Valkyrie questioned her,  
"I'm a time-dimensional shunter, Miss Cain. I believe I can mess up whatever the hell I want. Only thing that really sucks about it is that I haven't even sent you yet and we're already seeing the effects and have been for YEARS just because I'm going to shunt you to the year 1632. You've seen "Back to the Future", haven't you? Think of it as something similar to that."  
"You talk too much, it irritates me,"  
"You're right," Alanis stated, she then grabbed Valkyrie from behind and they disappeared.

At 9:35pm, the Bentley pulled up outside Fletchers place. Skulduggery got out and began walking to the front door, taking long strides as he did so. He knocked on the door, almost knocking it down and off its hinges.  
"Fletcher!" he called, bursting into the hall way.  
"Um, yes?" Fletcher replied, confused and wondering what the hell was going on. He hadn't even been on his date with Valkyrie to screw anything up yet.  
"Where is she!?" Skulduggery yelled,  
"Valkyrie? What does it matter? She stood me up; I thought she would be with you."  
"She wasn't there?"  
"No, she just wasn't. I tried calling her but it said her phone had been disconnected,"  
"And you didn't think to call ME?"  
"Well, no. I was upset, as if I'd be thinking about anyone but myself and how sad I am that I was stood up,"  
"Typical. Valkyrie's gone. No one knows where, but the porch light was still on at Gordon's. She only ever leaves it on when she sits out there; she was probably waiting for you."  
"Do you think that, maybe, someone's taken her?"  
"Yes,"  
"Skul, I think we should go find her…"  
"No shit, Sherlock. We're going to the Sanctuary to meet the others. You're coming with me" Skulduggery said, ushering Fletcher out into the car.

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**Please review, I need to know what people think! **


	6. Chapter 6

******I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.**

**Heartless - Chapter Six**

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"So, you time travel?" Valkyrie blatantly asked,

"No. It's time-dimensional-shunting, not "time traveling," Alanis replied, slightly frustrated at the clear ignorance of the girl.

"I'm gonna call it time travel," Valkyrie stubbornly replied, "I take it that you're an adept then?"

"That I am. One thing Melancholia did not tell me about you is what YOU are, care to fill me in?"

"Why should I?"

"Because, you stupid little girl, you are in no position to be arguing with me, now are you?"

"Fine, I'm training in elemental magic and necromancy,"

"Still training? You haven't gone through the surge yet?"

"No, I haven't. I still have no idea what I'm going to stick with, but what I do know is that I'm a hell of a lot more powerful that you,"

"Be that as it may, but without me you're stuck here for… as long as I feel like leaving you here, and that could be 100 years if I really feel like it," Alanis raised her eyebrows at Valkyrie before her figure blurred slightly and disappeared.

"Great," thought Valkyrie.

She surveyed her surroundings; she could tell that she was in Dublin; it was clearly the early 1600's. When Valkyrie stopped a man and asked what year it was he had told her that it was 1632, looked her up and down in utter disgust and almost ran away from her.

"My clothes… Oh, god. This is NOT what women in this day and age should be wearing," Valkyrie thought, and she took off to find a tailor or a dress maker, or SOMEONE that could help her fit in. She looked down the street and could find no such store sign or even anything that suggested there would be clothes inside, so she took to the alley ways and made her way to the other side of the surprisingly small city, which would only be small in comparison to the modern day Dublin. Her eyes squinted against the slowly setting sun and saw something in the distance. Three figures, she heard laughing, she looked closer, they were playing with fire, she kept walking, and she stopped. She was close enough to see that these kids weren't playing with matches or setting sticks on fire, one of them was throwing fire balls while the others dodged and laughed. She looked just beyond them; they were outside a tailor's shop.

"Great. I find the tailor AND I find a bunch of magical teenagers," she thought sarcastically.

She avoided eye contact with them, she still hadn't even looked at any of them yet for fear that they would notice her, which apparently they hadn't because next thing she knew she was on the ground after being hit in the leg with a ball of fire. It had gotten her completely off guard, suddenly more fire was coming her way, and she used the air to deflect it back to the small group of boys who were no longer laughing. Valkyrie got up, brushed herself off and checked out her leg where the first ball of fire had hit her, there was nothing there. Ghastly must've done something to the clothes so that even on her date she'd be safe – smart man. She pegged a ball of fire at the boy that was clearly an elemental mage and he looked at her, surprised. One of the other boys laughed, so she used the shadows from her ring to pull him out from under his feet. The three of them looked at her in shock. The tallest of the three, with blonde, curly hair and stunning deep, green eyes began walking toward her; she turned on her heel and made a bee-line for the shop. Just before she reached the shop, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Valkyrie grabbed the hand and flipped its owner onto their back, in front of her. It was the boy with the blonde hair; she quickly craned her neck around to find the other two boys laughing at the one of the ground. Valkyrie sighed and held out a hand to the green-eyed boy, he took it and stood up. He stuck his hand out to her

"I'm Skulduggery Pleasant, and you are?" said the handsome, green-eyed boy. Valkyrie was shocked. He had the same stature as the Skulduggery she knew, and the same shaped face.

"My name's Valkyrie Cain…" she almost whispered, suddenly shy.

"It's a beautiful Sunday, isn't it? Make me wonder, what is it that you're doing wandering around the streets of the 'dark side' of Dublin, as many call it, alone? I've never seen you before." Skulduggery questioned her.

"I'm looking for more appropriate attire," she told him, but he had already noticed what she was wearing and was staring at her magnificent body and when his eyes reached her prominent cleavage he tore them away from her. By now the other two boys had walked over to the two of them,

"Who's your new girlfriend, Pleasant?" one of the laughed, he was almost as gorgeous as Skulduggery,

"Shut your face, Erskine. Her name's Valkyrie," Skulduggery replied, giving Valkyrie a look of utter disgust.

"What is it with people and looking at me like I'm a murderer so something today?" she asked herself. Erskine turned to Valkyrie,

"It's nice to meet you, and I'm Erskine Ravel. You sure can handle yourself, what are you exactly, elemental or, um…"

"A necromancer? Both, well, neither. I'm training in both…" Valkyrie said before Skulduggery interrupted their conversation,

"Who trained you in elemental magic? Actually, no, what idiot would train you in elemental magic and let you study necromancy as well?"

"A very special man," Valkyrie began, "he's one of the most powerful mages I've ever encountered,"

"What's his name?" Skulduggery asked, genuinely interested,

"I can't say,"

"Are you and him..?"

"Oh! No! It's not like that at all!" Valkyrie almost yelled; her eyes wide. Ravel and the other boy roared with laughter before the other boy, who looked to be a year or two older than Skulduggery elbowed him in the side,

"Making your move, Skul?" he asked, still laughing, before winking at both Skulduggery and Valkyrie.

"Uh, no." Skulduggery removed himself from the situation; Valkyrie wasn't sure whether or not to be offended by him.

"My name's Charlie Pleasant, I'm Skulduggery's older brother. Don't mind him though; I'm sure he'll face the fact that he's overly fascinated by you soon enough. How old are you? Do you intend to attend school here? Assuming you're new here and staying..?" Charlie asked Valkyrie,

"Well, I guess I should go to school, I'm 17,"

"The four of us attend Permin-Temporal Academy,"

"But there was only three of you..?"

"Oh, you see, the reason the three of us were out here is because we're waiting for our good friend – Skulduggery's best friend, actually – Ghastly. His father owns this Tailors shop and Ghastly should be out to join us soon. If you'd like I'm sure we could help you in enrolling in Permin-Temporal Academy," Charlie said, looking at her with his kind, green eyes.

"I'd be glad to, thank you," Valkyrie smiled at Charlie, "But before that, I actually need to speak to Mr Bespoke, the tailor."

"Oh, not a problem, I guess we'll wait for you as well" Charlie said before nodding at Ravel and walking over to meet a sulking Skulduggery.

Valkyrie stepped into the shop and was met by another teenaged boy with scars covering his face. Valkyrie, used to the site of modern Ghastly's scars, was not fazed at all by the disfigured boy.

"Hi, I'm Valkyrie," she said, smiling at him,

"Oh…" the boy, obviously Ghastly, turned his face away in hope that Valkyrie would not notice his scars and run away screaming like many others had done before.

"Please, don't try to hide your face… I've seen your scars and contrary to what you may think, I don't mind them." She smiled at him; he took an instant liking to her.

"Very well, my name is Ghastly Bespoke" he smiled back at her and revealed his face. It was very similar to that of modern-day Ghastly, "What, may I ask, are you doing here, miss?"

"Would you believe it, I'm in this tailors shop looking for a tailor," she laughed.

Ghastly led Valkyrie down to the back of the shop to his father, Ghastly's father introduced himself as Mr Bespoke.

Valkyrie took one look at the current fashion for women and her eyes widened. There was no way in hell she was going to wear anything like that! Mr Bespoke noticed her disgust and realised,

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"No, Mr Bespoke, I'm not…" Valkyrie responded,

"Where are you from, my dear, that wears this kind of attire?" he asked, gesturing to what she was wearing.

"A long, long way away, sir…"

"This blend of materials is magnificent…" he said, studying her clothes, "the silk AND cotton. I've never seen it before. Who ever made this must be one fine tailor, am I right, Miss Cain?"

"You most certainly are. By far the best I have ever met, well ahead of his time…"

"Well Miss Cain, unfortunately for you this is what women here wear, although it does differ for the women of a certain community that I think you may have heard of…?" he said, suggesting something to her.

"Would that be the magical community?" she asked in reply,

"Why yes, it would. This makes things a little better for you Miss Cain," Mr Bespoke said as he hit a lever by a row of naked mannequins. The wall opened up and they stepped inside.

"Will you be attending Permin-Temporal Academy? I will be glad to make you up a uniform," he offered her.

"I'm planning on enrolling today, actually, so that would be very nice of you. Thank you so much…" Valkyrie smiled at the kind-hearted man and he got to work on her uniform.

"Ghastly?" Valkyrie began,

"Yes, Valkyrie?" Ghastly answered her, Valkyrie continued;

"Could you tell me more of Permin-Temporal Academy? I don't really know anything about it but the name…"

"Permin-Temporal Academy is a school for young mages, like a mortal school but like I said, for mages. It has a live on campus, we all live there – there's boys dorms and girls dorms and a few really great teachers and then there's a few not-so-great teachers that I swear are only there to scream at us. Um, I think you'll like the people there, depending on what kind of magic you practise. What do you do, anyway?" Ghastly explained,

"I'm training in elemental and in necromancy, but I haven't gone through the surge yet so anything could happen…"

"Oh… Wow… One of my friends is like that, but he's already gone through the surge," he said, trying to make her feel a little less awkward.

"Would that be Skulduggery?" she questioned,

"You've met him?"

"Yeah, I did. Just outside actually. He hit me with a ball of fire…"

"Well, that's Skulduggery for you… I apologise on behalf of him," Ghastly said, looking at the floor,

"Oh, no! Don't worry about it. I'm almost killed all the time, so this was nothing," Valkyrie shrugged.

Mr Bespoke finished off Valkyrie's new school uniform; he worked almost as quickly as Ghastly from the present. It was a red skirt that came to her knee's, it had plaid checkers downwards and across in a dark green. Some lines were thin, some lines were slightly thicker, it had a pleat on each side of the front and again on each side at the back; this made it symmetrical. Her top was a white blouse, with small ruffles down her chest that enunciated her large breasts. She thanked Mr Bespoke again and Ghastly took her by the hand and led her out through the front door, into the street. A woman with boxing gloves dangling from her backpack stood before the pair and greeted them with a smile,

"Mum, this is Valkyrie Cain. She's new around here and we'd like to enrol her in my school, can you help us?" Ghastly asked,

"Valkyrie, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Mrs Bespoke, do you have any family or relatives here?" she spoke to Valkyrie,

"No… No, I don't. I'm here alone…"

"I'd be more than happy to enrol you in P-TA, how old are you?"

"I'm 17, Miss,"

"Lovely, you'll be in the same class as Ghastly and his friends Skulduggery and Erskine then, I'll go and take care of it for you. I would offer for you to stay the night here, but we really don't have any room, Ghastly doesn't even have his own bed here. I'll ask around and find somewhere for you to stay before you start school on Monday. Oh, and Ghastly, you don't have to stay to help your father for the rest of the day either." She smiled at the two of them and began walking into the house.

"Thank you, Mrs Bespoke!" Valkyrie called as she and Ghastly walked off,

"See you later, mum!" Ghastly called after her.

Back in the present day, Skulduggery, Ravel, Ghastly, Tanith and Fletcher sat around a large table in a room Fletcher had never even known was there. Tanith was worried sick, she literally felt nauseous, but she found comfort in a seat next to Ghastly's and he put his arm around her as she rested her head on his strong shoulder. Despite what had happened earlier at Fletchers house, Skulduggery did not seem at all worried. Ravel was silent, secretly jealous of Tanith and Ghastly, Fletcher began,

"Okay, so we're all here! No one's talking, which is a surprise to me since Skeleton-man over here normally never shuts up! My girlfriend has gone missing and half an hour ago I was practically dragged out of my house and into this stupid building and now no one is doing anything!" he cried out.

"Fletcher, shut up. She is not your girlfriend." Skulduggery told him, not a hint of worry was in his velvety voice.

"Well, she's not your either, Pleasant!" Fletcher screamed out, Ghastly replied to him from across the table,

"Actually… I wouldn't be so sure of that, Fletcher," Fletcher, Tanith and Ravel looked from Ghastly to Skulduggery, both of which remained seated while the other stood up, almost throwing their chairs against the wall behind them.

"WHAT?!" they all cried out at the same time,

"Val would have told me! This is some kind of joke! Ghastly, Skulduggery, tell me it's a freaking joke!" Tanith continued. Ravel sat down slowly, as if he knew something Tanith and Fletcher didn't.

"Skulduggery, Elder Bespoke, you will see me in the next room. Immediately." Ravel said, his voice calm but loud. The three of them rose and Skulduggery and Ghastly filed into the next room, Ravel looked at Tanith and Fletcher, who was now in tears, and told them they would be back momentarily.

"I think Ghastly's onto what's happened, but Skulduggery, do you mind telling us what you think is going on right now?" Ravel asked them,

"She's with us, in the past. I thought I recognised that outfit you made her today, Ghastly! It's the one from the day we met her, remember Erskine? When were with Charlie… But Ghastly, you weren't there…" Skulduggery said to them,

"She came inside my dad's shop and we spoke. She was the first person that had ever looked at my face and not flinched or freaked out about it. My dad made her uniform for her while we spoke, I told her about Permin-Temporal Academy and my mother helped enrol her in the academy. But Skulduggery, other than that, you spent the most time with her." Ghastly said.

"He 'hated' her for half the time too, if I recall correctly," Ravel said, giggling, Ghastly joined in before jolting upright.

"You and Valkyrie… Skul… di-"Ghastly was cut off by Fletcher's screams from the other room.

"A SKELETON!? AT LEAST I HAVE FLESH! WHAT'S HE GONNA DO FOR HER, HUH? NOTHING! …BECAUSE HE HAS NOTHING!" Fletcher was screaming as Tanith tried to calm him down. She shrugged at Skulduggery as Fletcher whipped his arms around, his fist colliding with Tanith's face. She paused and looked at Fletcher.

"How about you shut up now?" she said as her own fist swung around and into his head, knocking him unconscious.

Skulduggery took in a deep breath of frustration, even though he didn't need to breath. He sat down and explained where Valkyrie was to Tanith, who went pale and freaked out.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**I do not own the Skulduggery Pleasant Series, the characters (unless other wise stated) or anything mentioned based on the books written by Derek Landy.**

**Heartless - Chapter Seven**

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"I don't believe it… How the hell did she get there anyway? Last time I checked, she couldn't just randomly time-travel!" Tanith asked, the colour slowly returning to her face.  
"I know Tanith; it's just that back then Valkyrie didn't say anything to us about where she was from or how she got there. If she did say something, then it wasn't to Ghastly, Ravel or I. If she told someone else… well it could have been anyone. She did have quite a few friends, she was there for… a while," Skulduggery answered her calmly.  
"You're not even worried, are you? She's a 17 year old girl whom of which has suddenly gone back to the Stone Age or something and you're calmly telling me that 'she makes friends and she's there for a while'! Who's she gonna make friends with? You, Ghastly and Ravel? That's not putting my mind at ease! Ravel will do anything on legs, and Ghastly wouldn't exactly be the fatherly figure he is to her now all the way back then! You, Skulduggery, you… were…" Tanith faltered.  
"Skulduggery was wanted by almost every girl in the goddamn school. He was the hot one, the funny one, the rebel, the dangerous one and when he met Valkyrie that escalated. When all the girls noticed that Skulduggery had taken in interest in Valkyrie, they went nuts trying to get his attention. Skulduggery was in denial for a little while before anything actually started developing between the two of them. Skulduggery hated her, almost as much as all the other girls that were jealous of her," Ghastly continued, Skulduggery looked at his feet and Ravel laughed.  
"It's funny," Ravel began, "the only times I remember Valkyrie ever being put in real danger when we were kids, she was ten times more powerful than the one trying to take her on,"  
"Ah, yes." Skulduggery reminisced, "After she went through the Surge at my house, she was unstoppable"  
"And now you're telling me she experiences the surge while she's there… Darquesse people! What if something happens with Darquesse?" Tanith asked the lot of them.  
"Tanith, you're right!" Skulduggery said, turning to Ghastly, "the reason the first traces of Darquesse are back there are because that's where she had the Surge!"  
Ghastly followed this statement, "That's why my mother had that vision about Valkyrie dying and the world ending…"  
"Exactly," Skulduggery confirmed.

Valkyrie continued walking down the street, holding Ghastly's hand. She felt safe with Ghastly, she felt like he would protect her the way he always had in modern Ireland. As they approached the other three boys, Ravel looked at Ghastly and Valkyrie and whispered something into Skulduggery's ear. Valkyrie could tell Ravel was trying not to burst out laughing; Charlie rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly. Valkyrie pulled away from Ghastly and walked a little bit ahead of him, smiling at the group of teenaged boys as she kept walking. She met up with them and walked straight up to Skulduggery, who was avoiding eye contact with her and practically scowling at her.  
"Hey, what's the matter, Skul?" she said, putting on her sweetest voice and tracing her finger down his right arm. When Skulduggery shrugged her off she pretended to look offended then smiled, totally content with herself. She knew she looked freaking excellent in her school uniform.  
"Valkyrie, you're wearing a school uniform on a Sunday. Don't look so content with yourself, you look like an idiot," Skulduggery said to her flatly. She was taken aback.  
"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I embarrassing you? I've only just come here today, with no friends, not a single family member, NOTHING. I didn't want to come here; I didn't know that I was suddenly going to be dumped here either. So it's either I wear this or I wear my other clothes that make me look like, what you people here would call, 'a lady of the night'. But you know what? Either way, you can't keep your eyes off me, Pleasant." Valkyrie said sternly, trying not to cry. She ambled her way over to a bench on the side of the street and sat down, not caring if any of them followed, which Charlie did.  
"Valkyrie, I'm sorry for him. I really don't know what's gotten into him," Charlie said,  
"Thank you, but I really don't care about him. I just want to go home…" Valkyrie said, her jaw trembling and her eyes threatening to spill over with tears.  
"Where are you from? You have an Irish accent, slightly different from our own, but it's definitely there,"  
"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Valkyrie said as tears suddenly started streaming down her face,  
"I promise."  
"I'm from a… a… a… I'm sorry, I really can't tell you…" she said, burying her head in her hands. Ghastly walked over and sat on the other side of Valkyrie, leaving Skulduggery with Ravel still standing in the middle of the street. Charlie got up and wandered over to Skulduggery and Ravel and was clearly telling Skulduggery off for not being at all sensitive to Valkyrie's situation. Ghastly told Valkyrie that he would be right back, and walked over to the others. Skulduggery rolled his eyes at whatever Ghastly was saying and Ghastly, in turn, threw a small ball of fire at Skulduggery's arm – not enough to hurt him or do damage, but enough to tell him that Ghastly wasn't afraid to stand up against him.  
_"Oh lovely! Now I'm tearing apart friendships too! How the hell is this going to affect the future now?" _Valkyrie thought, observing the interaction between Ghastly and Skulduggery.

Ghastly walked back over and took her hand, guiding her to a standing position, and the two of them walked off back in the direction of Ghastly's father's shop.  
"I'll check in with mum now. She's probably had time to go around to other people's houses and ask around for a place for you to stay by now," Ghastly said,  
"Thanks Ghastly. I'm sorry for all this."  
"No, this is just Skulduggery. I don't know what's gotten into him, maybe he's just upset about Ravel making jokes about you to him,"  
"Probably. I… I'm sure he'll get over it,"  
"I think he really does like you, to be honest. He's just trying not to get made fun of," Ghastly told her as they walked back into the shop. Valkyrie wiped her face and looked up, a woman with long, blonde, curly hair and deep green eyes looked at her. She was sitting in a chair beside Ghastly's mother.  
"You were right, she is a beautiful young lady," the stunning woman gushed to Mrs Bespoke,  
"I never lie about the beauty of young lady's such as this!" Mrs Bespoke said before turning to Valkyrie, "Valkyrie, this is Mrs Pleasant. She's told me that since Charlie has decided not to sleep at home on the weekends, as many students choose to do, she's got an extra bed at her place that she's happy for you to sleep in before you start school tomorrow!" Mrs Bespoke beamed at Valkyrie.  
"Oh, wow! Thank you so much…" Valkyrie said, faking a smile.  
"I see you know Ghastly, but have you met Charlie, Skulduggery and Erskine?"  
"I have, they're such… nice boys," Valkyrie said, and she and Ghastly laughed, leaving the two women in confusion. Mrs Pleasant turned to Valkyrie,  
"Come along, I'll take you to my home," she smiled.

Valkyrie looked around the dimly lit house, it was dark outside and the rooms of the house were illuminated by flickering candles on the walls and resting on flat surfaces. Valkyrie stepped into the living room, the furniture was all so beautiful, she rounded the corner, directly behind Mrs Pleasant, and she saw Skulduggery.  
"Skulduggery!" Mrs Pleasant called to him, "Skulduggery Pleasant!" he turned around and gasped when he saw Valkyrie.  
"Valkyrie..? What the hell are yo-"  
"Skulduggery, don't be rude! Ghastly told his mother and me that you're friends with Valkyrie. So she's going to be sleeping in Charlie's old bed in your room tonight. Then you'll both go back to being at school like normal tomorrow." She said before turning to Valkyrie and saying, "Oh, Mrs Bespoke set everything up at the school for you; you'll be all set to go in the morning. Now you two, it's seven thirty, so an hour until bed, off you go,"  
Valkyrie followed Skulduggery through to the back of the small house to a room with two small beds standing side-by-side. The sheets were woolly and a purple-red kind of colour. The under sheets that she could see were white and clean, the same as the pillows on each of the beds.  
"That's where you can sleep…" Skulduggery said gesturing to the bed on the left as he sat down on the one on the right. His deep, emerald green eyes glittered in the dim light coming from a couple of the candles sitting on the bedside table next to him. He exhaled deeply into a sigh,  
"What are you looking at?" he asked, sounding rather grumpy.  
"Your eyes…" she said sounding like she was half asleep.  
"Uh, why?",  
"I've never really seen them before…",  
"What, eyes? Are you deranged or something?"  
"No, that's not what I meant. I like them. They suit you, I never really pictured you with green eyes, that's all,"  
"You make little to no sense, Valkyrie,"  
"But I'm pretty, so that makes it okay, right?" she laughed a little,  
"With that attitude, you'll get nowhere in life, Miss Cain" he said, finally turning around to look at her. "You're wearing that to bed?"  
"Well I don't really have anything else, do I?" she said, Skulduggery noticed the way her hair shined in the candle light. He stood and walked over to his set of drawers; he opened the second drawer and pulled out a white T-shirt, closed the drawer and opened the fourth draw and pulled out a pair of grey shorts before closing the drawer and turning back to her. He threw them directly at her face, he had great aim.  
"I know it's technically underwear, but you can wear that if you like," Skulduggery said,  
"Thanks…" Valkyrie said as Skulduggery stepped out of the room for her to change.

When Skulduggery entered back into his bedroom Valkyrie was already asleep. Although he wished he could have just slept at the academy like he normally would of, he was sort of glad that Valkyrie was there. She wasn't straight up horrible, or mean, or anything bad really, the way he had been acting as if she were. He gazed down at her sleeping figure. Where had she come from? Why was she here? Was it destiny, fate, meant to be? She was so beautiful; she seemed to be something completely and utterly different from all the other girls.  
_"I hate her."_ Skulduggery thought as he slipped himself underneath the covers. As the night grew deeper Skulduggery stirred. Hours past and he awoke at some time around 2:30am, he felt dirty, ashamed, and revolted at himself. He couldn't stop thinking about Valkyrie and the tight clothes she had worn earlier that clung to her body and revealed her large breasts. He squeezed his legs together underneath the sheets trying to get warm enough to fall back to sleep, at that moment he became aware of his hard, throbbing penis. He slipped his left hand under the sheets and it trailed down his stomach until he could feel his large, erect cock through his pants. He slipped them down, just enough for him to fit his hand and entire penis inside of them, and ran his fingers up and down his length, his thigh muscles tightened and loosened in a consistent rhythm as he stroked the shaft of his penis up and down steadily. He sighed with the tingling pleasure and after a moment, he gripped his cock firmly. His fist pumped up and down his large penis for who knows how long, until finally he came. His ejaculate was plastered onto the inside of his pants; he enjoyed the sensation of his warm cum on his own penis. He rolled over and looked again at Valkyrie; he was so attracted to her. Eventually he fell back to sleep, completely unaware of the attraction she, too, felt for him.

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	8. Chapter 8

**Heartless - Chapter Eight**

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Just over half an hour later, Valkyrie awoke; tangled in her sheets. She wanted to scream but the pain was burning into her so much that no matter how she had tried, no sound would come out. She managed to roll off of the bed and untangle herself enough to be able to reach Skulduggery's bed. She clutched her sides, searing with agony, she let go for a short moment to grab at Skulduggery to try and wake him up. He was still fast asleep, she pulled at the bed sheets, stirring him a little, and finally a small whisper escaped her pale lips through all of the pain,

"Skulduggery… Help…" was all she could manage before the rest of her body collapsed onto the floor with a second loud _thud_. As if upon hearing his name, Skulduggery opened his eyes and saw her on the floor. The colour draining from her face, the strength draining from her body, shadows curling around her. Skulduggery shot up,  
"Valkyrie? Valkyrie, what's going on?" he cried at her, "Valkyrie… Are you okay? What's happening?" tears dripped down her pain staked face. Skulduggery leapt from his bed to the door, practically tearing it off its hinges, and bolted through the house,  
"Mum! Mum!" he screamed; his eyes were wide with terror, a fear for someone that he passionately hated. Mrs Pleasant took Skulduggery in her arms, asking what was wrong and what was going on. He shook his head and she set him down on her bed and she hastily made her way up to where Valkyrie was. She saw her crumpled up on the floor, gasped and ran to her side.

"Mum… What's going on..?" Skulduggery asked Mrs Pleasant, his mother turned to him and answered,  
"Valkyrie is going through the surge…. It could last anywhere between a few minutes to even weeks. Do you remember yours? It only lasted about twenty minutes to half an hour. We can only hope that for Valkyrie's sake it's just as short. I'm going to go back to bed; it's going to be a long day tomorrow. You can sleep on the couch or stay up, it's up to you," Skulduggery heard the door of her bedroom click shut, without delay he bolted back down to his room and sat next to the pale, aching girl. He moved her head just onto his lap and watched in terror as she struggled against the pain; her arms were bleeding in multiple places, probably from where she had hit it on something. After an hour Skulduggery was crying, he hated watching her like this, he hated her as well; how dare she scare him like this? How dare she keep him awake? It was 4:30 in the morning! Suddenly she stopped struggling, she stopped moving, and she just laid there.

Eventually Skulduggery had fallen asleep beside her, holding her in his arms. The clock stuck 7:45 and the sound of multiple people running through the house echoed. Ravel and Ghastly ran toward Skulduggery's room, hoping he and Valkyrie had worked things out and were ready to go to school; they were already going to be late. They stopped outside Skulduggery's bedroom door, it was closed and everything was quiet, that was strange for Skulduggery; he always kept the door open just a little and made as much noise as possible. They spotted a note beside his door,  
"Skulduggery and Valkyrie,  
"Everything was quiet this morning so I assume everything's okay. I've gone early to the markets, have a nice day at school.  
Love, mum",  
Ravel shrugged at the note, looked at Ghastly, looked at the door and reached for the doorknob. He turned it and gently opened the door, revealing Skulduggery with his arms around Valkyrie, lying on the floor together; her arms were bruised and had obviously been bleeding a little, sheets were tangled and sprawled across the room. Ravels eyes widened and Ghastly's jaw dropped.  
"Well," Ravel said, his wide smile was threatening to turn into an outrageous laugh. Skulduggery's eye fluttered open, he was still exhausted. Ravel opened his mouth to speak, but Skulduggery quickly sat up and put his index finger to his lips, silently telling him to stay quiet. Ravel kneeled beside Skulduggery, holding back his laughter; Ghastly has taken a step backwards and out of the bedroom, still in shock.  
"Way to go, Pleasant!" Ravel whispered to Skulduggery,  
"Shut up. Nothing happened. What time is it?" he responded just as quietly.  
"She likes it rough, then?" Erskine winked at him,  
"No. Now what time is it?"  
"Eight forty five,"  
"Shit! We're gonna be late!" Skulduggery leaned over Valkyrie and poked her back, "…can't wake her up,"  
Ghastly walked over to them and looked Skulduggery in the eyes,  
"Did you do something to her?" he asked sternly.  
"No!" Skulduggery cried, at normal speaking level now, "I would never-"  
"Thought you hated her, Skul," Ravel interrupted, actually laughing now, "I've done a lot of girls, but I never actually hated them – or bruised them like this. She's out alright, you must've been good" he winked. Ghastly was disgusted.  
"I didn't touch her!"  
"Then why did we walk in to find the two of you cuddled up in your underwear on your bedroom floor and the sheets messed up and everywhere?" Ravel said trying to talk Skulduggery out of what he thought was a lie about what had happened last night, Ghastly had moved himself by Valkyrie and the two others looked at him as he looked at her and smiled. Her eyes had fluttered a little, they remained shut but they still fluttered! Ghastly told the others and Skulduggery shoved Ravel out of his path and ran to his wardrobe and threw on his school clothes as fast as he could. He had even rushed over to where Valkyrie had neatly put her own uniform and clothes and picked them up to walk them over to her, but half way across the room Valkyrie's bra fell out of the folded pile.

Skulduggery placed Valkyrie's clothes beside her, she was just starting to wake up, and he darted over to the unfamiliar object on the floor. Ravel picked it up and felt it in his hands,  
"Doesn't feel like any corset or anything I've ever felt before, or seen for that matter," he said, examining the soft cups of it. Ghastly walked over to them and felt the side material,  
"Its cotton. I don't know what it is, but you're right, it's nothing like a corset," he said. Valkyrie was awake and alert by now, she slowly sat up and tuned into the boys conversation. She looked over at them, Ghastly was making his way over to her while Skulduggery and Ravel fondled with her bra, she giggled,  
"If you're quite done, could I have my underwear back?" she said smirking a them. Skulduggery dropped the bra, Ravel didn't,  
"How is this underwear? I've seen women's underwear many, many times, but I've never seen THIS before," Erskine asked her. Valkyrie got up, walked toward Skulduggery and Erskine,  
"I can show you, if you'd like," she said seductively, winking at them both.  
"Pft. Who would want to see you in something so… small… anyway? Gross." Skulduggery said, Valkyrie pouted at Erskine, who winked at her. She slipped her school skirt on over Skulduggery's shorts and once it was in place she pulled the shorts off; ensuring that the boys would see nothing, but Skulduggery was staring at her. Then she turned around and took off Skulduggery's shirt, Skulduggery stood behind her with Erskine, who was staring at her perfect figure and whispering to Skulduggery about how much he'd like her on top of him, and Ghastly, who was looking the other way entirely. Skulduggery was thinking the same as Erskine, he would have loved to walk around to the other side of her and just take her there and then, but since the surge had just taken place for her no one had any idea how powerful he may have been. She put on her bra and turned around; aiming herself mostly at Skulduggery,  
"See? This is how it works…" she said, running her hands slowly down her body. Skulduggery felt the erection in his pants growing and he turned around repeating,  
"Pft. Like I said, who would want to see you in that?" he struggled to hide his erect cock. She shrugged, as if totally innocent, at Ravel, who was grinning largely and staring at her chest.

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	9. Chapter 9

**Heartless - Chapter Nine**

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Once Valkyrie was completely dressed, the three left the house. Erskine spent a little while questioning Valkyrie about her bra, while Ghastly just stared at Skulduggery; looking for an answer that it seemed he just wasn't going to be given.  
"What happened last night?" he finally asked, his heart was racing from nerves,  
"Valkyrie had… well, it was the surge," Skulduggery said, almost stuttering.  
"That explains a lot,"  
"Ghastly, I am both shocked and hurt that you would think so lowly of me," Skulduggery said.  
"Oh, shut up, Pleasant," said Valkyrie. Ghastly and Ravel laughed as Skulduggery frowned.  
"What are you then, Cain?" he asked her sternly,  
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked in reply,  
"Elemental, necromancy?"  
"I'm not sure yet, I don't remember ever coming to a decision. Apparently you were with me the whole time, so you'd have a better idea than I would," Valkyrie said, Skulduggery pulled her over closer to him and whispered in her ear,  
"There were shadows… everywhere… but then there was fire covering your skin and wind pushing you from nowhere…" he told her.  
"Wow… I don't know… I guess I'll see later, wont I?" she said to him and re-joined the others. They arrived at the school. Valkyrie wondered what had happened to the school before she had been born; it most definitely wasn't there in her time. It was white and magnificent, had tall towers, beautiful gardens and a large gate at the entrance.  
"I have to go to practise." Skulduggery huffed, Ravel answered him,  
"You never go to practise, Ghastly and I need to see our English teacher about our partner assignment, you're taking Valkyrie to admissions and showing her around,"  
"I NEED to go to football practise SOMETIMES,"  
"No. You're taking her. Football isn't even on Monday mornings, you idiot," Skulduggery walked toward the admissions office, Ghastly gestured to her to follow him.

The office lady was really nice and really helpful. They had everything sorted by the end of first period, and Skulduggery stood in the office by Valkyrie the whole time. He had this weird feeling that even though he really, REALLY hated her, he wanted to, no, had to be by her side. Maybe to suddenly kill her when no one expected it, yeah, that was it; so he could kill her whenever he wanted to! He smiled content with his justification of his urge to be near her. What if she didn't want to be near him though? She seemed awfully fond of Ghastly… No, no, what was he thinking?  
_"I'M the most wanted boy in the entire freaking school. Ghastly's nice and all, but I can be nice too… and hot! What a stupid girl. Yeah, she's stupid. I don't want a stupid girl. Why would I want HER anyway? There are other girls. PRETTIER girls! SMARTER girls! HOTTER girls! And they'd all KILL at the chance to go out with me! Dumb bitch, I wouldn't want her anyway." _Skulduggery thought. He turned around and saw one of the girls that was usually in his "Fight and Defend" class. She had long, light brown hair and legs that went on for miles. She, as did most of the other girls at the school, had rolled her skirt at the top to make it shorter. She could only be described as HOT.  
"Skulduggery, I do wonder if you're thinking about the girl over by the Principles door," she asked him, smiling up at him with her beautiful, deep, blue eyes.  
"Fierier… I completely forgot you could do that… Of course I'm not thinking about her. I don't even know her; I've never seen her before. Have you seen her before? Maybe she's new here," Skulduggery lied.  
"Well, no. I've never seen her before, but I know you have. I saw you two whispering together outside of the school, you're also thinking about something that happened last night between you and her; unfortunately I can't read far enough into your mind to find out what, I'm assuming it's something completely indecent and you're ashamed so you lied to me. You think she's beautiful. You think that she's even more beautiful than me… Which I guess is saying something since I've always been the most beautiful at this stupid school. You and I would make a fine couple, you know? We'd be the hottest couple in school, in the whole city even, everyone would be jealous, especially that… muscular girl over there. The only thing I can read from her mind is that she LIKES you. She's thinking about you right now, it's like she's known you for years. She's judging you on things that you haven't even done – yet, according to her mind you haven't done these things YET. Is she a sensitive?" Fierier finally finished.  
"No, last time I asked her she was an Elemental and a Necromancer like me. She's not a sensitive, and you're probably wrong about what she's thinking. You're wrong a lot of the time; you're really not the best mind reader around. And as for the two of as a couple? We've been over this; I'm not interested in you. You're a manipulative little skank. See her?" Skulduggery answered Fierier and pointed at Valkyrie, "She's wearing her skirt at the RIGHT length and it looks good. She doesn't look like a prostitute, and you know what else? She has a personality, a good, decent personality. She's nice, funny, annoying, never listens to a word I say, but she's sweet, smart, stubborn and sexy. All of that on top of being beautiful! She's twice the woman you'll ever be; she's more powerful than you too. So why don't you rack off and leave me alone for a change. Leave Valkyrie alone too, you got that?"  
"You're so sexy when you argue with me…" she said as she went to leave the office, picking up a school newspaper on her way out,  
"I know," Skulduggery said as she closed the door. Valkyrie walked back over holding her new timetable; Skulduggery tore it away from her and looked at her schedule as she frowned at him.  
"Shit…" he said, gaining a filthy look from the school secretary,  
"What?" she asked, now behind him and peering over his strong arms at the piece of paper,  
"You're in ALL MY classes…" he sighed,  
"Oh. Is Ghastly in any of them?" she asked much to Skulduggery's surprise. He was a little hurt.  
"All of them…" he answered her meekly, "So is Ravel,"  
"Sweet! Can we go then?" Valkyrie asked him.  
"We don't have to go to class today, I'm meant to show you your room and stuff. If I fail out of my education because of this it's your entire fault,"  
"Oh, well I can help you catch up if you like? I really need to look over everything else that you guys have learned so far…"  
"You'll have learnt it at your last school,"  
"Uh, well actually… my last school wasn't a magic school and everything I know is really from my own experiences…"  
"Far out…" Skulduggery breathed out.

They walked up a large, extravagant staircase and through the halls until they reached a door with "Girls Dormitory B"engraved into the wood. Just down the hall was a second door that had "Boys Dormitory A _ROCKS" _engraved into it, the last part of the engraving was obviously graffiti.  
"Your room's in there, door 5" Skulduggery said pointing at the girl's dorm door, "I live in that dorm there, so does Ravel and you're beloved Ghastly" he said now pointing at the boy's room door.  
"My beloved Ghastly?" she questioned,  
"That's right," Skulduggery confirmed,  
"I don't think so,"  
"It's obvious you like him,"  
"I don't like him like that! I barely know him AND he's my friend, he and Charlie are the only two of my "friends" that have been nice to me since I got here. You've been trying to convince everyone you hate me and Ravel, well, I haven't quite figured him out yet,"  
"Whatever. If you don't like Ghastly, who do you like then? Some stupid guy from where ever the hell you're from?!" Skulduggery yelled, frustrated. Images of a skeleton-Skulduggery passed through her mind, then Fletcher and how she was meant to be on a date with him not long ago, and then totally alive, flesh AND bone Skulduggery popped into her head. A single tear ran down her cheek, she wanted to go home. Everything was less confusing at home. She stopped thinking for a moment and suddenly found herself being embraced by Skulduggery.  
"I'm sorry… I shouldn't of- Valkyrie…" he whispered through her hair so she could only just hear him. She could feel his heart racing, he could feel hers do the very same, she pulled herself closer to him; thankful for the comfort. He ran his hands up and down her back, keeping her body close to his.  
"I hate you…" he finished, they parted ever so lightly and looked at each other and smiled,  
"Of course you do," Valkyrie answered and giggled slightly as she closed her eyes. Her head rested against his chest, he liked having her close to him. He pulled away from her and put his arm around her waist and led her toward the boy's dorm on the same floor, opening the door and leading her to room 1. There were three beds, Skulduggery led her to the bottom bunk of the set of bunk beds and laid her down, and he climbed over her and put his arms around her once more. They stayed there cuddled together and almost asleep for a couple of hours, every now and then Skulduggery kissed her on the cheek or on the neck and pulled the two of them closer together. He stroked her hair and she lay there, still completely exhausted after her lack of sleep from the night before.  
"I thought you hated me?" she whispered, her eyes were still closed,  
"I do, very much so in fact. You're stubborn, annoying, loud, surprising, irritating…"  
"Gee, thanks…"  
"…sweet, kind, nice, pretty, sexy, hot, and muscular AND you turn me on, What's not to hate?"  
"I'm not sure whether or not to say thank you," she giggled, "I already knew that I turned you on, I saw what you were doing to yourself last night,"  
"Shit…" he whispered back,  
"I know you're just going to do it again tonight though," she whispered, he could see her smiling. She moved onto her back and started unbuttoning her shirt until once again she was in nothing but her skirt, underwear and bra. She moved on top of him and grabbed his hands, which she noticed were shaking slightly; she spread his fingers and promptly pressed them onto her breasts. He blushed and smiled a little, she felt him squeeze her breasts and run his fingers over her erect nipples, they could both feel his own erection.  
"Yep, I hate you," he breathed as they leaned in and kissed passionately through smiling lips. Skulduggery took off his own shirt and was now on top of Valkyrie. Valkyrie loved the way his lips felt on her skin, on her lips, cheeks, neck, breasts, shoulders, ears… Skulduggery had kissed every inch of skin she had exposed to him, which in her defence was not very much. She kissed him back, his lips, his nipples, neck, abs, shoulders and arms. She turned him over she he was on his back once more and ran her hands between his legs, a little bit scared to touch his throbbing penis, but she ran her hand up and down it through his clothes. He moaned slightly and then sighed at the intensifying pleasure; she was smiling a seductive smile. He unclipped her bra and slipped it off of her shoulders and threw it onto the floor with their shirts. He looked at her pale, pink nipples; they were large and round; so perfect. Her breasts were even bigger without a bra or shirt hiding them. He just stared for a moment at the first pair of real breasts he had ever seen on a girl, other than in drawing or when he was a baby. He put his hands on her shoulders and slowly slid them down her bare chest, feeling how smooth the skin was and brushing his thumb, almost expertly, over her nipples. She bent down and kissed him, their tongues intertwined, when she pulled away he sat up and she was sitting in his lap and her legs were wrapped around him. He took her breasts in his hands and leaned into them, kissing them and taking her left nipple in his mouth. He flicked his tongue over it, and sucked it, she moaned. When he gently bit it she moaned even louder and clamped her hands over her mouth, but he didn't stop. He moved over to her right nipple and did the same, fondling her left boob as he did so. He slid his free hand down the back of her skirt, feeling her toned ass, he slowly grew hornier. She rubbed the outside of his pants and felt when he stopped whatever he was doing when he moaned with pleasure.  
"Val…" he breathed, "I want to touch you so badly…" they both stopped and laid down beside each other, his erection still jabbing into her thigh and her breasts still protruding.  
"I know… I want you to, have you ever had sex before?" Valkyrie asked him,  
"I have, only about 5 or 6 times," he told her, "how many guys have you slept with?"  
"Skul… I'm a virgin,"  
"How!? You're so magnificently hot and a really good kisser…"  
"It never got that far with anyone, it's never been like this before,"  
"It's never been like this for me either, if you don't feel comfortable going any further I'll understand,"  
"Thanks… There's one thing that I think you'll like…" She said, sliding away from him and putting her knees between his.  
"What's that?" he asked, staring into her deep eyes and then to her chest. Her hands moved toward his pants and she slid them down to where their knees met. His eyes widened a little in surprise at her actions, he'd never been with a girl that took charge, with all the other girls it was get naked, fondle their small breasts, get hard and put it in, slide it out over and over and then wait until he came. He wasn't even sure if girls could orgasm themselves! But Valkyrie… she was something special. He felt a hot sensation on his penis. It was sticking up right and Valkyrie had her lips around the head of his thick, uncut, cock.

"How do we even know she's still alive!?" Tanith asked Ghastly, it was like everything had just fallen into place and they were in Ghastly's shop drinking tea together.  
"I know she's alive AND that when she leaves she's alive too," Ghastly answered, he didn't sound as calm as he'd hoped to.  
"Am I missing something? Did something happen to her..?"  
"Well, it INVOLVED her…"  
"What was it!? Is she okay?" Tanith was in full panic, Ghastly put his hand on her knee.  
"It's nothing panic-worthy, I don't think,"  
"What is it then?!"  
"I remember coming from class back to me, Ravel and Skulduggery's room during first break to get a text book I'd forgotten for history… I opened the door of our bedroom and…"

The door opened, Skulduggery's hard cock still deep inside Valkyries mouth. As they heard the door creek open further they shuffled up next to each other and Skulduggery took her in his arms and pulled the blanket up over the two of them before pulling up his pants. Skulduggery, not caring where her mouth had been, passionately kissed her. Ghastly walked in and saw Skulduggery in his bed.  
"Why aren't you in class?" he asked,  
"I'm, uh, getting Valkyrie settled in…" Skulduggery replied, that's when Ghastly looked at them properly and noticed Valkyrie.  
"Fucking hell, Skulduggery! Are the two of you even wearing clothes!?"  
"I have pants on. Valkyrie's still wearing her skirt and underwear. You see why I hate her? She's not easy enough!"  
"Oh, that's enough Skul! You don't just do whatever the hell you're doing with anyone. I know you. We've been friends forever. If she told you she wasn't going to actually have sex with you, you wouldn't even get in bed with her, but since you HAVE FEELINGS for her that AREN'T HATEFUL you just want to be with her, and cuddle her,"  
"Come on… I'm sorry for fooling around with your new friend,"  
"Is that all she is to you? My new friend?" Ghastly looked at Skulduggery and Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie.  
"You're a challenge Valkyrie, I like that. I like you." Skulduggery said.  
"Good! Now you've finally admitted it you're going to have to be friends with her as well, and NICE to her, if I see any bad behaviour from you toward Valkyrie, you'll have to deal with me," Ghastly said, nodding at Valkyrie. He then picked up some random text book and left the room. Skulduggery kissed Valkyrie once more.

"Oh wow…" said Tanith after hearing what happened, "Val's FINALLY stopped being so frigid and let go, with SKULDUGGERY!?"  
"Mhmm…" mumbled Ghastly.  
"Ahhh… Good times, good times. I learned a lot that day," Skulduggery said from the door way,  
"YOU! How could you do that!? All the time you KNEW you did that to her… You… you knew…"  
"Yes, Tanith. I knew. I love her, she loves me too. If she'd willing to love Skeleton me when she gets back, then I hope something will happen again…" Skulduggery said.  
"You're a skeleton. What could you possibly do to her?" Tanith asked, confused.  
"I guess Valkyrie and I would have to figure that out together…"  
"I'm not sure whether or not to think that's cute or creepy," Tanith said,  
"Like-wise…" agreed Ghastly.

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Please Review! :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Heartless - Chapter Ten**

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The final bell rang for the beginning of Role Call and Valkyrie walked at a fast pace around the corner of the corridor in search of the room she was supposed to be in. She was lost; panicking thoughts flooded her mind as anxiety swept through her body. She saw something move out of the corner of her eye, turned and saw the gorgeous girl that was talking to Skulduggery in the office the day before.  
"Excuse me," Valkyrie quietly called to Fierier,  
"Oh, hi! I'm Fierier buíochán, and you are?" she responded, sounding exceptionally sweet and overly friendly.  
"I'm Valkyrie Cain. You're friends with Skulduggery, aren't you? I was wondering if you could help me find the room I'm meant to be in…"  
"Yes, we're VERY good friends, he and I," she said, taking a look at Valkyrie's timetable, "ah. You're in Seomra 9, up the stairs and to the left" Valkyrie took back her timetable and thanked Fierier before heading towards the stairs in front of her.  
_"'Seomra'… That's Irish for 'room', which makes sense. 'Buíochán'… that's basically Irish for something that means Jealousy. Well, yeah. I'm jealous of her, she's practically flawless…" _Valkyrie thought as she made her way to her class. She noticed the shadows trailing behind her fingers; she really was a lot more powerful, scared, but powerful all the same. The night before, she had played around with her powers and was very impressed by her abilities in necromancy and elemental magic; she was overjoyed that she could keep both!

She walked into the classroom, hoping she wouldn't be noticed. She was noticed.  
She took one step into the classroom and all eyes were on her. She noticed Ghastly and Ravel sitting toward the back of the room with a bunch of other guys, they were probably popular too or something if everything Valkyrie had heard about Skulduggery being the hottest thing around were true, but where was Skulduggery? Ah… Standing by the teacher at the front of the room; no wonder all the boys at the back were laughing. The room wet silent upon her entry. Taking a look around the room, there was a group of really good looking girls sitting up the back with the guys; the male teacher had walked over to her and was awaiting an introduction.  
"Oh, I'm Valkyrie… Valkyrie Cain,"  
"Well hello, Valkyrie. I'm Mr Rivers," he said to her before turning to the rest of the room, "Class, this is Valkyrie Cain. Today is her first official day and I hold in high hopes that you will all welcome her kindly. Tell us about yourself, Miss Cain." He said, gesturing for her to move across the room to the centre of the front of the room. She did so.  
"Well, uh…" she began, faltering, "My name's Valkyrie Cain, I'm 17 and I come from a place that takes a long, long time to get to from here. I'm an elemental mage and a necromancer, I've recently gone through the surge, I know about four people that go here; Ghastly, Erskine, Skulduggery and his brother Charlie. I've never been to a magic school before, only mortal schools; where I'm from female mortals ARE allowed to go to school – everyone's basically equal in both the mortal and magical world. It's a great place…" She finished and Mr Rivers told Skulduggery to go and take her to a seat. They walked to the back of the room and Skulduggery gestured for her to sit next to Ghastly and himself, Skulduggery was also sitting next to Ravel. The girls sitting around them giggled and whispered,  
"I heard she was so easy that Skulduggery didn't even have to ask her to get in bed with him!" a blonde girl said,  
"What a slut! She's only known him for like, two days! She slept over at his house the first night they met and everything!" a red-headed girl whispered.  
"I heard… just about everything you just said, I think you're about to hear one more thing though. I slept at Skulduggery's house in a separate bed under the hospitality of his mother, I didn't sleep with Skulduggery at any point during our time together and I don't intend to either. I am not easy, and Skulduggery didn't ask me to get into bed with him because we're not even friends," she eyeballed Skulduggery as she turned the heads of the people around her. How could he tell people? Ghastly wouldn't tell anyone, let alone make things up! As if reading her thoughts, Ghastly tapped her on the shoulder and smiled at her,  
"Don't worry about them," he told her. Skulduggery was shocked, and completely pissed off at her once more. Why had he even bothered? Just as he was beginning to actually like her she does THIS!

The lunch bell rang and Valkyrie had no idea where she was going. She wanted to follow Skulduggery, but she was still mad at him, so she went and sat alone under a tree that was just out of site from where Skulduggery and his stupid friends hung out. She'd gotten a chicken sandwich from the kitchens before seating herself in that small amount of shade, she eagerly took a bite out of it and leaned back onto the tree and sighed.  
_"Great. It's my first day and I'm already the school slut, I've been betrayed by someone I thought cared about me, I have no freaking friends and I'm sitting alone, under a stupid tree at a stupid magic school, in a stupid time period where they don't even have deodorant or tampons or phone reception…" _She thought bitterly. Suddenly some random boy ran up to her, he had long, brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail,  
"Have you seen Skulduggery anywhere? None of us can find him. Oh… You're that new chick. You're really pretty, wanna come back to my room?" he spoke.  
"No, I haven't seen him. I don't care if anyone ever finds him. I am the new girl. I am pretty. No, I will not come back to your room with you, you fucking, perverted loser." She smiled at him, got up and walked away leaving the boy completely bewildered. As she walked, tears streamed down her face.

She rounded a building corner and sat herself down on the concrete next to a small garden with a pond. There were some coy fish swimming around and being all coy and stuff. She sighed again, as she did so she saw a figure move from behind some of the plants – whoever it was, was watching the coy fish too.  
"Who's there?" Valkyrie asked, wiping some of the oncoming tears from her eyes,  
"Valkyrie, is that you?" the figure answered,  
"Yeah… Who are you..?" she answered. The figure moved and as it emerged Valkyrie realised it was Charlie.  
"What are you doing back here?" he asked her,  
"Hiding, and you?"  
"Watching the coy fish,"  
"Yeah, they're pretty coy… I like the one that's mostly back, reminds me of me," Valkyrie said and laughed quietly.  
"True. Why aren't you with Skulduggery? Last I heard… the two of you were… getting on… pretty well…"  
"Well you heard wrong!" she snapped.  
"Whoa, whoa… What happened?" he asked her, and she told him everything.

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Please Review! :) I know it's only short and it's been a while, but I do my best...


	11. Chapter 11

**Heartless - Chapter Eleven**

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Valkyrie made her way up the stairs toward her room, she hadn't met any of the other girls yet; she had gotten in late the night before and left just as late in the morning for class. She was eager to meet some of the other girls, but she hoped like hell that she wasn't bunking with those gossiping girls from earlier that day. She rounded the corner and entered through the dorm room door and walked through to her room. She had the room to herself; apparently it used to be the spare room for if the girls were arguing and decided not to room together for the night. There was a double bed, a desk, chair, and candles evenly spread throughout the room. She quickly dashed into her room and shut the door – just in case. Within five minutes, Valkyrie had sorted through her books and left them in organised piles on her desk and sprawled herself across her bed, not a moment after she had gotten comfortable there was a knock on her door. Whoever it was, they didn't stop knocking when Valkyrie didn't respond.  
"I know you're in there, hello?" said a girl's voice,  
"Ugh. Come in then…" Valkyrie replied.  
The doorknob turned and a girl about the same age as Valkyrie stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. She had shoulder length, wavy, light brown hair, blue eyes and light brown freckles sprinkled across her face. She was really quite pretty.  
"Hi, I'm Pretty," she said,  
"Uh… Alright then, my name is Valkyrie,"  
"Oh! Ha, ha! I mean that my name is Pretty, Pretty Goldson,"  
"Ah, that makes more sense. What are you here for?"  
"Well, I thought that maybe it would be good if we could get to know each other, since I'm living in the next room with one of my friends. She's really nice too, her name's Zokia, where are you from anyway?"  
"Far away,"  
"I'm from somewhere pretty far away too, have you ever been to Austria?"  
"Australia? Yeah, I have… You don't sound Australian though,"  
"What's Australia..? I'm from Austria, and I don't sound like that either because my parents took me there to live for a few years between the ages of eight and fifteen,"  
"Oh, Australia is near to where I lived… Yeah, it's pretty far away, no one's ever really heard of it around here. My parents were from Dublin too, though! They, um, died and I decided it would be nice to come back here,"  
"Oh, Valkyrie… I'm so sorry, would you like to come out and meet the other girls?"  
"Sure, why not? Do you think they'll like me?"  
"Of course! They all love you after we saw you telling off the other girls for gossiping about you…"  
"None of that was true, honestly. Skulduggery and I aren't even friends," Valkyrie said in a quick, but unnecessary defence.  
"He speaks quite warmly of you… or he did, at least, when I last spoke to him,"  
"You're friends?"  
"No, our mothers are friends and we've grown together over the years when we weren't apart, when I was in Austria. He's like a very distant, uncaring brother," she laughed.  
"Oh… That's… good then," Valkyrie said awkwardly as she made her way out to the common area of her new dorm room, it was filled with girls she'd recognised from class. They tended to not draw attention to themselves in class or at lunch so Valkyrie really didn't know any of them. She spoke to all of them at least once that afternoon, setting rumours straight, to their delight of course since they all openly admitted to being head over heels in love with Skulduggery. They all found it rather amusing how every girl that met him, loved him, until one of them mentioned Fierier. Apparently Fierier had had her eye on Skulduggery, just as everyone else had, from day one, and fully intended to make him hers. Unlike the rest of the girls, she was willing to give up anything, morals, rules, money, friends, to be with Skulduggery. If Valkyrie had of been honest with herself, she would have found it quite pathetic; if she was that desperate and would do anything to get him, why didn't she already have him? Why wasn't Skulduggery following Fierier around like a pathetic, little, lost puppy? Unfortunately, Valkyrie's head was clouded with jealousy so she could not see such reason, instead she mentally plotted and planned how she was going to be better than Fierier and get Skulduggery for herself – not that she wanted him of course, she hated him. She hated Skulduggery with a burning passion, but you know what they say, "Love and hate are two sides of the same coin".

Skulduggery, Ravel and Ghastly stood outside of the cell in the Sanctuary that Fletcher had been dragged into, kicking and screaming, after he had gone somewhat insane when he had discovered what was going on. Skulduggery, since he didn't need to sleep, had stayed with him over night to monitor him for the Sanctuary, since Skulduggery had kindly pointed out to the other mages that Fletcher really was no threat at all. Ravel was busy going through every contact he had in an attempt to find a way to bring Valkyrie back, even though he knew she'd get back eventually and he knew almost exactly what she was doing where she was; at least he'd hoped that Skulduggery he told him the truth. He was mostly doing it for the sake of Fletcher, Tanith and Ghastly. Ghastly knew just as well as Ravel, probably even better, what had happened to Valkyrie all those hundreds of year ago, but for some reason he was quite concerned. Was there something he had missed, that he hadn't been told..?

Three days had past, Valkyrie's budding friendship with Charlie had grown stronger and slowly Valkyrie's hatred for Fierier had melted away; Fierier hadn't done anything or tried anything that involved Valkyrie, so it really didn't worry her too much. Skulduggery, on the other hand, had decided to spend the past three days just staring at the back of Valkyrie's head as she sat with what could only be described as the 'unpopular' girls. Skulduggery was annoyed by how happy she was despite not being 'cool', but as Skulduggery's bad luck would have it, because of rumours springing up about Valkyrie and Charlie – an OLDER guy – Valkyrie was slowly rising up in her own category of popular. She wasn't climbing the social ladder up to the girls that hung out with him, Ghastly and Ravel, Oh no, it was like she was staying still and everyone else was slowly sinking into the ground below her.

"How's Valkyrie's hair look today, Pleasant?" Ravel laughed at Skulduggery,  
"What?" he replied,  
"Oh come on, almost all week you've done nothing but drill holes in the back of her pretty head. Are you… jealous?"  
"Jealous of what?!" Skulduggery whispered loudly at the back of the classroom,  
"Charlie. I saw her come out of Charlie's room last night while you were bathing. Maybe she really is as easy as everyone says…"  
"She's not easy! She's… just not. Charlie said that he and Valkyrie are just friends!"  
"Is that EXACTLY how he said it? He could have meant something else," Ravel winked at Skulduggery and Ghastly groaned in the next seat over, this conversation was most definitely not one he was interested in being a part of.  
"Well," began Skulduggery, "He didn't call her Valkyrie; he called her 'Val'. He said she told him to call her that,"  
"Wow. You've got competition buddy," Ravel sighed and Skulduggery followed,  
"He's not competition if I don't even like her!"  
"STOP IT! You like her. You said it. You're probably killing the poor girl by ignoring her and practically forcing her away from you!" Ghastly interrupted, he was clearly frustrated.  
"SHE was the one that… she was in Charlie's room!" Skulduggery rebutted.  
"Oh, and so was I. Nothing happened, she's just friends with him and she even told us that you make her feel like she's worth a little more than a bar of soap, and by the way, Charlie knows EXACTLY what happened between the two of you. Valkyrie told him, I told her not to tell me since I thought I'd seen enough. Charlie's said that he's really quite disgusted in you for the way you've been treating her. You really need to grow up!" Ghastly continued, Skulduggery looked ashamed.  
"I'm sorry," Skulduggery finally musted up the courage to say.  
"Don't apologise to us, it's her you need to make it up to," Ravel said calmly, as Ghastly looked like he was ready to knock Skulduggery out.

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Thanks for reading so far and being so supportive! Please review, even if you already have! If you want to contact me, head on over to my profile and check out my contact details! Thank you all so much, you're amazing!


	12. Chapter 12

**Heartless - Chapter 12**

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Valkyrie sat on the side of the dirt and rock street, idly watching her own blood slowly drip across her hand as well as down her right leg. Even she thought this scene was rather morbid, but she continued staring at the slow trickling of blood. She was listening for the sound of someone walking across the gravel, for the sound of someone's voice to ask her if she was okay, for someone to help her up and offer to take her away from where ever she was now. She wanted to get out, she didn't know where her body was, but her mind was in a place darker than the tunnels beneath Gordon's house. All she really wanted was someone to take her mind away from that, to smile at her, hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

After school she had decided not to see anyone, not to make eye contact with anyone, to escape for a little while. She had taken a long walk around old Dublin, it really was beautiful. She had tripped over her own feet at one point and cut her hand on the gravel, the cut on her leg though was from climbing a tree. Usually these things wouldn't happen to her, but her mind was in another place completely. Eventually she had made her way to a large, open, empty field. She stood in the middle of it for a while before screaming out  
"HELLO?!" in secret hopes that she would finally be found by someone, that she would be discovered by Skulduggery! Skulduggery would hear her scream and come running, he would hold her in his arms and stroke her hair, he would kiss her tenderly and he would even tell her that he loved her. He would make everything okay again… It was after this sort of "I need to be rescued" mentality that Valkyrie had found herself on the side of some random street, bleeding and wondering why she wasn't crying even though she was hurting so much inside. She willed herself to stand and go back to school. She trudged wirily toward Permin-Temporal Academy, feeling as though she was going to be sick for thinking such thoughts about Skulduggery.

"Val's back!" screamed a voice as she continued to miserably trudge down the hall and to her room; she immediately closed the door, changed into her nightie and sat on the floor beside to the door. She didn't know what to do with herself. She could hear the girls whispering a few metres away from her door, within five minutes the door knob jiggled and someone turned it to open the door from the outside.  
"Go away," she said into her hands, she had buried her face in them and stayed that way since she got there,  
"Val, come on… up you get" it was Charlie, hearing what she had been yearning to hear made her cry. She got up and trudged head down, into Charlies waiting arms. It wasn't the same boy she was fantasising about earlier, but she figured a friend was even better. He led her over to her bed and they sat down, Valkyrie crying into him.  
"Is this about Skulduggery?" he finally said,  
"Uh-ha…" Valkyrie nodded, her head still pressing against his chest,  
"He'll come around… if he doesn't, I'll kill him. I know that… things… happened, between the two of you, but I really don't think he'd do that and then stop talking to you forever…"  
"I guess…" Valkyrie said, thinking about how Skulduggery spoke to her in the future, "I'm sure that one day we'll be fine… even if it is in four hundred or so years," she giggled as Charlies face turned to that of a look of confusion but he ignored the lack of sense she was making and smiled back at her anyway. Charlie really liked Valkyrie; he enjoyed both her company and their friendship. Valkyrie felt the same, although a little regretful of the future, just knowing that he wasn't always going to be there, knowing that once she went back to the present he just wasn't going to be there anymore…

The orange-yellow light of the early morning sunrise slowly seeped into Valkyrie's bedroom. As the sunshine hit her eyes she blinked a few times, adjusting her vision to the pleasant shift in lighting. She strained to move her arm but found that she couldn't, Valkyrie moved her head to the side and saw Charlie; this was when she noticed that his arms were still around her and that they must have fallen asleep. Thankful that it was finally Saturday, she rolled over and faced him and as if knowing she was staring at him, he opened his eyes and stared back at her.  
"Sorry," Charlie smiled at her,  
"What for?" Valkyrie questioned, confused,  
"for not being Skulduggery…" he winked and stuck his tongue at out her.  
Shocked and a little amused, she jumped on top of him and pinned him to the bed, her breasts, prominent and her nightie, short and revealing.  
" I'm sorry too," she said, biting her lip,  
"What are YOU sorry for?"  
" I'm sorry for being so sexy," she whispered into his ear. His eyes grew wide and he grinned from beneath her, she stuck her tongue out at him and he leaned up to her and kissed her on the cheek, they both laughed and tumbled off of the bed together.

" I'll leave you to get dressed and sort out whatever you need to sort out with Skul, okay?" he told her as he got up and headed for the door.  
"Thanks Charlie, sometimes I really do just need a friend. I feel like things are getting really complicated and it's scaring me a little, but it's nice to know I can trust you."  
"You can tell me anything, I'll take it to the grave, Val," he replied softly as he stepped out of the room and gently closed the bedroom door.

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Hi everyone! I'm so sorry, I haven't had any time at all to write and post any more but tonight I just sat and wrote for about half an hour and this is the result!

I love you all and thank you to everyone that's reviewed, followed, etc. 3

_**YOU'RE ALL THE GREATEST PEOPLE ON THE PLANET!**_


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